Rogue Huntsman
Disruption
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"Still can't open your eyes or are you actually over the fact that you're up in the air without any control over where you're going?" Anoel asked, holding the girl in her arms close to her chest as she took her above the clouds.
The morning sun had passed by now, the two of them having been up in the air for the majority of the start of the day by now as the evening sun sat overhead.
Its light wrapped around the contours of the white clouds around them beautifully, wrapping around the wispy mounds of rolling hills with a colorful depth that really did put an ocean to shame with its bright hues.
"T-this is too high!" Ly whimpered, screwing her eyes shut as tight as she could.
"Are you sure?" Ano asked with a widening grin, "How can you tell if you can't see?"
Taking the two a little lower, Anoel brought them closer to the surface of the clouds. She floated just out of reach of them, but focused on keeping her beats gentle to avoid displacing the illusory ground spanning below.
"I-I still feel like you're punishing me for the joke I made." Ly fearfully buried her face deeper into the crook of Anoel's neck.
"Of course not," Anoel replied with an unconvincing inflection, "But if we went any lower, you'd only be reminded just how high up we are. At least above the clouds, you can't see the ground through them."
"Doesn't make it any less scary, Ano," Ly tentatively pried a single azure eye open, surveying the open sky around them, "I can't just ignore the fact that we're hundreds of meters above the surface… without a parachute…"
Anoel rolled her golden eyes and glanced down to the hesitant gaze just below her chin, "Ly, I am your parachute."
The phoenix's gaze stayed locked with Ly's for a moment longer before letting her smile lighten a bit in its amusement.
"Do you want me to fly us like we did your first time?"
"I-it would help…"
Ano's gaze softened as she nodded to that, taking the girl she held in a bridal carry and slowly bringing her face closer to her own.
She kept her wings' beats slow and gentle as she tilted them back, gradually shifting the tight grip she had on Ly's body so the girl could straddle her instead.
Once she felt her legs wrap firmly around her waist and lock with the curve of her hips, she tilted them back fully before pushing down with her wings and taking them into a horizontal glide.
Anoel's back facing the clouds.
With Ly feeling like she was resting on something rather than being carried, Anoel quickly brought one hand up to rest supportively on Lylac's upper back while her other stayed tightly wound around the thief's lower.
"How's this?" Anoel asked softly, her glide almost looking effortless as she trusted her body to keep them steady, "Can you see my eyes? I think they're bluer than yours."
"Anoel…" Ly breathed out, her heart rate gradually decreasing as she felt herself calm down, "I can feel how blue they are…"
With her eyes fully opened now, Ly was able to gaze into the vast sea of clouds, finding herself suddenly staring in awe at the sight, despite her vertigo.
The phoenix's smirk couldn't have been wider in response to that.
"Good, you didn't stutter that time," she commented, her voice falling into a comforting tone as her irises melted back into a golden shine, "But I lied… Now that I can see your eyes, mine can never be that blue."
Ano couldn't help but tilt her gaze with a bright, supportive smile, looking to distract the girl's mind rather than get it worked up.
"You're lucky your Affinity has a calming effect," Ly commented, still fascinated by the scenery to pay the phoenix any direct attention, "There's no way in hell anyone else would have convinced me to go this high up."
"I think you're forgetting something," Anoel replied, tightening her hold to draw Ly's quizzical eyes back to her own, "You're the only one I want to take up here with me."
Ly's cheeks flushed ever so slightly, "Oh, you make me feel so special."
Anoel felt her smirk grow just a little bit wider at that, "Really? I thought it was pretty obvious. After all… even with this gorgeous view around us, where do you think my eyes have been this whole time? I don't need to go this high up to find a view this beautiful."
"You can stop hitting on me, Ano," Ly's blush intensified, "I mean, you already got laid so easily…"
Her attempts at discouragement… were incredibly futile.
Anoel's grin made it ever so painfully clear of that.
"So? I like stroking your ego," Anoel said with an earnest gaze, but that gaze quickly turned amused again as she set herself up for her next few words, "Besides, I love seeing you blush."
Ly whined and buried her face back into Ano's shoulder, "It's not as enjoyable when you do that… If anything, it's embarrassing."
Anoel loved this, bringing her lips close to Ly's ear to whisper her next response.
"It's best when you're embarrassed."
The warm skin of Anoel's neck felt something hotter press into it as Lylac whined a little more, "Stop that…"
"Stop?" Anoel ghosted her soft lips over the edge of Ly's ear before giving it a small nip, "Why? You don't even notice we're flying anymore."
Ly's eyes widened a fraction of an inch as she stiffened, but that tension quickly melted away as she relaxed again and sighed, "You did it again… I don't know how, but you always manage to make me fall into this sense of security when I'm with you."
That had always been her intent.
Even from the start.
But that wouldn't stop her from getting just one more blush out of the girl on top of her.
"Well…" Ano leaned in a little closer as she let a hot breath crash lightly against the sensitive nip she left behind on Ly's ear, "Now you can say you rode a girl to cloud nine in more ways than one."
Anoel knew she'd succeeded once Ly went quiet and hot after that.
However…
A soft crackle of energy filtered through the black feathers of Anoel's wings as she glanced up for a moment.
The air was growing colder, and with a quick glance to the side, she saw the white clouds beneath them melting away into a graying expanse of electrified stormy hills.
Ly's eyes finally cracked open now too once she felt Anoel's attention stray, a small grimace scrunching up her nose for a moment as her legs tightened their hold, "You know… I don't really favor getting my pajamas soaked today."
"That's not what you said this morning," Anoel rectified her casually, somehow keeping to her distractedly hormonal demeanor despite her concern, "You're still in just panties and a shirt either way, so it's not going to be horrible if you get drenched."
"But I'll be cold…" Ly whimpered.
Anoel was strangely turned on by that…
But she ignored that small fleeting thought and righted their flight, holding Ly close to her body by the lower back and waist as she felt both Lylac's arms and legs do the same.
She let the shaky girl lock her chin over her slim shoulder as she warmed the electrified air around them, soothing those shivers out of Ly's chilling skin as the two floated over to a gap in the clouds.
They'd drifted far over into the Emerald Forest, by the looks of it.
But something flashed beneath them, the covering of trees far below shaking violently as a bolt of golden lightning shot out of the ground and ripped across the canopy of leaves in a blink of blinding light.
"This doesn't look like my apartment…" Ly muttered quietly.
"You're right," Anoel replied evenly, but her eyes narrowed to the growing concern of what just happened, "Your apartment doesn't sprout lightning out of its foundation."
Ly's eyes turned down to see the flash of lightning fade, its bolt disappearing toward the city, "Not that I know of."
The gap in the clouds soon closed as Anoel felt the winds shift, her wings bringing the both of them higher into the air before turning back.
"Guess it's time to go."
'Storm's arriving, and it's starting to rain. I'll be in the forge when you decide to come down.' Arex typed, lying her scroll back on her forge as she sent the message to her partner.
The room was effectively empty, void of anyone else as she turned her eyes back down to the disassembled processors she'd been working on for Ray.
A small crumble of stone fell to the floor in the background as the temperature of the room rose, the indent in the wall still there after Ray took flight the last time she was in here.
An intricate array of the digital pieces lay just hovering over the surface of her work area as she spun it around, finding the holographic display of what she'd work on next as she enhanced it to overtake the rest of the projection.
"For something so small… this needed a lot of pieces working together to even get close to the output he needs…" she muttered, moving over to her collection of parts and tools Kitsuki organized and plucking out what she needed for this segment.
Everything needed to be resistant to high temperatures, which made the melting points of everything involved rather high. That partially explained why Ray came to her… if he even knew about her Affinity at all.
She didn't know at this point how much he knew about her. But he had access to her records, wherever they may have been.
She wouldn't put it past him to just dump the most tedious part of his project off onto her while he focused on the rest of it. She was most known for her intricate designs over anything on a larger scale, mainly because she was careful and creative with her infrastructural detailing.
The hardest part of any mechanism was figuring out how to lay its interior out. She picked that process up naturally, so the rest came easy.
This was going to be a long night… But with Kit undoubtedly on her way down due to the storm, it wasn't going to be a lonely one.
And against Arex's own thoughts, she silently admitted to herself of something.
She was actually starting to crave Kitsuki's company.
Even though it was silent.
She may not have a voice, but somehow, she still managed to express herself in full with expression and sign language alone.
That was more than she could say about most other people.
It was already late, nearing midnight actually, so Arex knew Kit was probably lying in bed right now. But she never fell asleep until Arex was there too, so the girl knew Kitsuki saw her message and was on her way.
It was just a matter of a few minutes now as she trekked across campus.
Hopefully she'd be alright. It was late, so she wouldn't run into anyone.
Despite that, Arex couldn't help but open her scroll and open her interior map, pinging for her partner's scroll signature as she updated the white fox's location.
The small dot was moving slowly, just leaving the dorm building.
She was probably already on her way. Arex smiled, moving her attention back over to the parts she was working on as she glanced back to her scroll every now and then.
That attention only deviated when the forge room doors slid open in the background ahead of her with a hydraulic grinding, a curious gaze turning up as soon as a few pieces were in place to see who just walked in.
The open bulkhead doors to the forge allowed the room to depressurize, the phoenix feeling the temperature drift through to the hallway behind the arrival.
Standing in the middle of the entrance, panting heavily and dripping with water… was Ray.
She watched the boy stomp into the room, his clothes clinging to his skin and completely soaked through as he swiped his scroll against the interior terminal to shut the door.
After it closed, he threw his messenger bag toward the nearest workbench and proceeded to remove his jacket and beanie.
She looked away at that point, distractedly going back to her work as she partially paid attention to what he was doing. Was he… going to work on his weapon again?
Her ears picked up a crystalline whine, slowly building up as she glanced over to see Ray illuminated in a bright violet light, then without warning, the light dispersed, sending water droplets clinging to him across the forge.
A couple droplets struck the ground near her station to the right of him, darkening a few stray spots into its surface.
But despite that, she looked back over and noticed his clothes and hair were still soaked.
Ray approached the nearest forge and opened the protective barrier door, revealing the smoldering flames inside, shuddering as the heat hit him.
He took a stool from underneath the worktable his bag rested beside and dragged it toward the open forge before sitting down with a drawn out sigh.
Looks like the rain really picked up.
Hopefully Kit used the covered paths on her way down.
The phoenix went back to her work, slipping a quick gaze to her scroll to see Kitsuki taking the paths she was hoping she'd be taking. And from the looks of it, she hadn't been stopped yet.
Which meant no encounters.
That was good, at least.
Arex preferred it that way, especially after Anoel told her about the almost daily harassments she had to suffer through during daily classes. That ultimately brought her to stay in the room as much as possible, or just leave campus at times.
She didn't seem to change those habits until Arex came along, and after a little while, the kitsune was spending any time outside of those classes with the phoenix herself.
Whenever she was free… which, honestly, was most of the time, she was with her.
As the girl worked though, a second set of footsteps suddenly caught her attention from inside the forge room itself.
She quickly glanced up and noticed Ray still staring intently into the fire about a foot away from his front, leaning toward the open flames as he sat on his stool, resting his elbows against his knees.
Her eyes then switched back to her scroll, noticing Kit had just reached the forge building.
Which… left someone else inside it? She didn't see anyone else enter, and she's been here already for a couple hours.
Her mind quickly drew back to the entrance as the heavy, scorched doors slid open, a tired golden-orange gaze drifting into the room from a height just a few inches shorter than herself.
Drowsily drooped fox ears lay back on her white head, only slightly damp as that gaze sifted through the room and finally fell silently on Arex on the rightmost forge of the central column.
But that gaze quickly drifted back left as she saw someone else staring at her.
Maybe it was because she was carrying around a white, fluffy blanket, and was currently standing in her pajamas.
Which was just her light thin sweater overtop her white panties.
Ray sat up as his brow raised in confusion, giving Kitsuki a once over, mouthing something she managed to read.
But it was way too vulgar to repeat to herself, even if it matched his shock perfectly.
Her gaze soon tilted as she saw him leaning toward the forge's open flames, still apparently damp as her own tails dripped water behind her.
She… thought she saw something running down his spine. They almost looked like circular black studs, segmented down his back and showing only faintly through his soaked, clinging shirt.
But her view of it went away as he turned toward her.
The mute glanced back to Arex, Ray's gaze following her line of sight before he went rigid and swore again.
"Fuck."
Kit seemed to ignore his one-word monologue, padding into the room in her damp white boots as her tails trailed behind her, the doors sealing shut as she made her way tiredly to her partner.
"Cold?" Arex asked, the two of them not paying attention to a momentary shuffling coming from where Ray was sitting… or the tipping of his stool…
Which soon crashed to the ground with a solid, echoing thud as he stood and backed away, keeping alarmed and cautious eyes on them at their station.
The mute kitsune silently nodded to Arex, her small form slumping onto a stool as she draped her blanket onto the other one, closer to the forge.
Keeping it close to the heat to dry off.
She folded her petite arms on the workstation before her and rested her head on them, fox ears staying drooped on her head as she closed her eyes.
Arex couldn't help but smile at the sight as she touched the workstation, filtering a warm path of heat from her affinity through it and over Kitsuki's body, a small shuddered breath leaving the girl's lips as she sunk more comfortably into her arms.
The forger then glanced back up to where Ray was, seeing his station perfectly repositioned to make it appear no one had been there.
Then after a moment… a new forge started up out of sight of her.
"Okay…?" the girl quietly whispered, going back to her work now that Kit was steadily drying and dozing off at her station.
Arex still never knew exactly what Anoel did to Ray after she left his dorm room. Part of her wanted to know… but the other part of her screamed at her not to ask.
She just… decided not to press the issue. Whatever happened was for her sake, or so Anoel said.
It looked like it really left its mark on Ray, though.
She would've kept working too, if she didn't jump at hearing a sudden crash coming from the storeroom and the thudding of wood against something hard.
Almost as if something shattered and a collection of metals just cascaded to the ground.
Arex quickly turned her gaze to Kit, only to see her still resting her head on her workstation, ears perked toward the noise but her eyes only partially open toward the source of the ruckus.
Someone else was definitely in here.
As the phoenix stared toward the door to the storeroom, a shuffling from inside quietly started to filter through before someone's sing-songy voice sounded out in a stifled echo from deep inside it.
Wait, she recognized that-
The storeroom door suddenly swung open with a solid kick, the sound ripping out into the rest of the quiet forge area as Dante stepped out with a collection of materials held in a large, towering pile in his arms.
"What's this? What's this? There's color everywhere!" Dante's voice suddenly broke out across the now silent room, tuned to only the steps of his feet as he made his way toward the few steps that led him down to the main floor, "What's this? There's something in the air!"
It was almost amusing. He was going strong and seemed to be pretty on-key with several of his notes, but it was at least a little funny.
Arex smiled lightly, despite having no idea what he was singing, as he made his way to the steps.
"What's this? I can't believe my eyes, I must be dreaming, Wake up, Dante, this isn't fair
What's thi-?!"
Flashing yellow eyes suddenly widened as Dante stepped forward onto a ground that wasn't there and let out a piercing yelp and a quick "Oh shi-" before completely tipping forward and tripping down the stairs.
Everything he was carrying suddenly flipped comically into the air, his body crumpling and thumping harshly down the stairs as his back eventually flopped flatly onto the ground.
Somewhere in there, Arex heard the shutter of a camera and watched a white flash saturate the scene right before he hit the ground.
Dante's eyes were still wide as he muttered something else… right before all the metals, tools, and materials came crashing back down right on top of him, forcing a hard wince out of Arex as she watched the whole thing unfold.
"Erm… are you… alright?" she asked, eyeing the pile of heavy rubble crushing him.
She got no response… in fact, the entire stack grew motionless.
The phoenix glanced to her partner, surprised to see her shoulders shaking and her hands covering her mouth, eyes filled with amusement.
"He's perfectly fine," she managed to sign with shaking fingers, her slim frame still racked from her silent laughing as she smiled widely.
The reaction brought a smile to Arex's own lips as she breathed out in relief, turning her eyes back to the motionless heap of lifelessness settled on the floor of the forge room.
Kitsuki noiselessly stood and walked over to the pile, crouching down where Dante's head was partially sticking out before lightly poking his cheek.
He seemed to just be staring up in a distant, pondering gaze.
"Is he dead?" Ray called out, stepping around from where his new station was, his voice more clearly amused and hopeful than concerned as he pocketed his scroll.
Kitsuki just kept quietly staring as she sat herself down on the ground, tails sweeping back and forth against the floor behind her as she shook her head no in response and waited.
She was waiting for him to register her poke.
"I guess not…" Ray murmured as he crouched down beside her, "But we can drop more stuff on top of him just to make sure."
As he spoke, he dropped a titanium ingot he picked up from the floor into the center of the pile, causing a couple loose pieces to shift.
But other than that… it remained lifeless and unresponsive.
Kit poked him again, wondering if he was just thinking before the teen suddenly shot up, snapping into a sitting position and firing some of the debris on top of him into the far wall.
"My digital watch processes information faster than you, Dante," Ray deadpanned, standing back up as the white-haired teen looked around.
"Please tell me nobody kissed me," he muttered.
"Not in this fucking lifetime."
"Good. And that wasn't me processing information from falling and stuff. I just… got into the mood of thinking of other things for a minute. Like the meaning of life. Why do we wear two socks and not three? And how come graham crackers are more addicting than drugs? Especially the cinnamon flavored ones. You know, the important stuff."
That last part sparked a little interest in Kit's eyes.
"42, convenience, and additives," Ray listed off evenly.
"Whelp…" Dante looked around him and his pile, "This is a downright mess now."
"You're bleeding," Kit signed, shifting up onto her knees to lean behind him and find a deep cut in the back of his head.
"He heals," Arex informed, catching her partner's focused attention and getting her to sit back on her ankles with a nod.
And just like that, the bleeding had long since stopped and the wound no longer present.
"Wow, magic…" Ray commented sarcastically, his voice dead.
Kitsuki smiled amusedly at Ray's response to Dante's hidden ability, reaching down to try to pick up one of the ingots on the ground.
Well… 'try' being the keyword there.
It was a big ingot.
Sort of…
Ray watched her for a few moments as she tried to tip the object up to get her fingers under it, waiting to see if she'd actually do it, before calmly breathing out and bending down to touch the ground.
Vibrant purple hardlight branched out into the ground before sweeping beneath the objects littering the ground, moving all of them and restacking them into a neat pile back in Dante's lap.
Leaving the one Kit was trying so hard to pick up.
"You can do it. Any day now. Sometime this century would be nice too…" Ray said, standing back up as the girl struggled.
"And what about the ones across the room?" Dante asked.
Ray waved the question off, seeing as a couple were deeply embedded in the stone of the eastward wall, "Not my problem."
"Maybe I should go find a glass of water…" Dante smiled, "I'm awfully thirsty. Like… really really thirsty."
Ray only rolled his eyes in slight annoyance to that.
Was he trying to say something targeting?
Kit silently pointed up toward the sky after the teen said that, the cascade of pelting water against the forge's exterior walls suddenly filtering in again.
"Just kidding, I was only messing with him," Dante continued, noticing the small gesture, "He likes other drinks besides water since he doesn't like how it tastes. He's very ashamed of it."
It sounded like an inside joke.
The kitsune mouthed a quick 'oh', her tails settling back down behind her and ceasing their movement.
"Says the one who crashed and burned during a musical solo."
"That last step before taking my oh so glorious swan dive was sort of loose, okay?"
"The last non-existent step was loose? If you say so."
"Walking on air's pretty tough. It takes a few tries," Arex commented from behind, a small flutter of amusement in her voice before she switched her focus from the others back to her project.
Well, things certainly got a lot more lively.
And with Kit giving up on lifting that one decently sized ingot, she backed away and let Ray or Dante deal with it as she scanned Dante for a moment now that he's sat up.
She smelled cinnamon on him, so her golden-orange eyes were sifting for any kind of box he may have had.
She wanted graham crackers…
"Hungry?" Dante asked, glancing over to meet her gaze, "Or just wanting to satiate your gluttonous craving for cinnamon?"
Kit silently nodded to both with a meek smile.
"Here then. Have the whole box if you'd like," he said, reaching into the pile and grabbing a box of unopened, cinnamon graham crackers.
With a cautious glance and a small, tiny sniff to make sure the box had nothing wrong with it, Kit lightly took the snack from Dante's hands and wandered back to Arex's station, getting a small roll of the eyes from her partner.
Ray lightly tapped his purple canvas shoe, still damp from the rain, against the hard floor of the forge, sending shimmering hardlight across its surface and underneath the ingot Kitsuki gave up on.
With almost pinpoint accuracy, the hardlight flicked the ingot into the air, performing a full front flip and landing at the top of the neat pile he had constructed.
"Nice one, tinman," Dante commented, standing back to his feet and holding the pile of towering materials atop his left hand for a moment as he looked around for a free forge, "Where are you set up?"
"The one with the stool," Ray replied, gesturing to the other side of the room, "away from danger."
"Awe, you took the one I wanted," Dante said, heading off toward the back side of the forge, between Arex's and Ray's, "Wait… Danger?"
From the entrance, Arex's station was alone on the right-most side of the room, closest to one of the two storerooms.
Ray's was furthest left, closest to the only other storeroom. Dante was eyeing the one at the back of the cylindrical layout of the room, furthest from the entry door.
Overall, nobody could see each other's workstations once they were all set up.
"What'd you mean by 'danger'?" Dante asked, "Did you do something you shouldn't have? Prank gone wrong?"
"No comment." Ray placed his hands inside his jean pockets and walked back toward his workstation.
"Now now, don't be shy," Dante spoke after him, eyeing Ray rather curiously, "Share with the class today."
"No."
"Spoilsport…" the immortal replied with a sigh before taking a glance toward Arex, "So, what'd he do?"
Arex could only shrug, only partially paying attention to the only conversation taking place inside the room as she finished the final few minuscule pieces to her current part.
With a quick slide, she pulled up the mapping of the next one and started work on another set of recently forged segments.
"Something happened between him and my sister. I didn't ask for the details," Arex replied absently, glancing over to Kit for a moment to see the fox's gaze watching her work.
A single half of a graham cracker lay lightly clasped between her lips as she nibbled on its corner.
Dante remained still for a few moments before chortling and breaking out into laughter, kicking his feet slightly.
"That was your first mistake, buddy. I'm actually surprised and amused."
Ray didn't respond.
"Lighten up," Dante said with a tilt of his head, shrugging his shoulders before heading off now too, "The fact you're here, breathing and with all your limbs, means she only roughed you up a bit. Maybe."
Arex glanced up to see Dante send the beanie-wearing teen a coy smile before moving out of sight.
"Still, I can pretty much imagine your pants being a few pounds heavier after having a 'talk' with her," his voice continued, "I get the feeling she can be pretty convincing when she's scary."
The phoenix could only shake her head at that as she kept working, the two boys disappearing from her peripherals entirely now as they headed off to work on their own projects.
They had no idea…
But after a moment, she glanced up to see Kit clamping a half-eaten cracker in her mouth trying to sign something.
"How protective can Anoel be?"
A light sigh left Arex's lips as she looked back down to her tools, "Very."
Wrote this during a storm with the power flickering on and off…
How ironic XD.
Google Docs was even disconnecting and reconnecting as I wrote the first scene with HydraFlow for his character. That made for an interesting hour or so... sorta.
In any case, I'll be finishing off this forge scene next chapter then I'll go back to Niro (this was also one of the few times the three of us were in the same document (andy, hydra, and I) to write out an interactive scene).
He really needs to stop dragging storms back to Beacon.
Kit's already fretting enough there as it is.
For now, Favorite and Follow.
I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.
Cya XP