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Chapter 118: Body Language, Body Horror
Pantheon's hulking and monstrous form loomed threateningly in the darkness, their overall mass made more imposing by the throne of twisted metal and interwoven living Grimm-flesh upon which they sat and their monstrous skeletal maw pulled into a snarl whilst each of their six eyes, arranged in pairs of inverted triangles set deep within a skull resembling that of a crowned and helmeted wolf glowed balefully as the Grimm General considered the loss of their Kitsune and the subsequent events around the human settlement that their purpose-made monster had followed its' quarry to.
Whilst undeniably an annoying defeat the loss of the nine-tailed Fox Grimm which had showed so much promise had not been enough to render Pantheon feeble or without influence of the island of Menagerie. Rather than allow themselves to be so easily denied the Grimm General had taken the swift and fierce response their efforts had been met with as further indication that they were indeed on the right path and that the lone Mouse Faunus who had left Gestalt-Prime's current hiding place in order to seek out reinforcements or some other form of aid; Pantheon's answer to this had been successive waves of Grimm over the course of the intervening days, attacking from the land and sky in an effort to both hamper Gestalt-Prime's efforts and at the same force the younger sentient Grimm to make a bold play, showing their hand and making mistakes which Pantheon would be ready to capitalise on.
Thus far however Pantheon had been unable to keep themselves entirely calm as each successive push at the borders of the settlement whose walls were lined with vines and flowers was pushed back, several of them by the same quartet of Hunters to slay the Kitsune and strangely none of them by the twisted and detestable amalgamations of Grimm and machinery borne of Gestalt-Prime's madness; even when Pantheon had begun to send flocks and plagues of airborne Grimm to harass the settlement and every transport which attempted to leave it their response had been a more conventional one, namely sending armed aircraft carrying warheads rather than a cargo of raging Cyber-Grimm and weapon emplacements mounted on the settlements' walls which stitched fire across the sky until the threat was eradicated and the defenders had unknowingly left Pantheon temporarily blinded as each of the scores of pairs of eyes that the Grimm General had watched them through were gone.
Now, on the third day since the loss of the Kitsune they were ready to try again.
The Grimm General shifted their weight within their throne and waited for the familiar rush of expanding, shifting and contracting consciousness as a single Synapse Grimm bobbed and floated into place with more silent malevolence than such an oddly made thing should have been able to possess, its' tendrils flickering in and out of corporeal existence as they drifted outwards to connect themselves to the mess of pulsating writhing mass of disturbing flesh covering Pantheon's throne which then in turn merged itself with the surface of their living cape made of fused, atrophied and repurposed wings; causing the hulking form of the abomination which stood at three times the height of a man to spasm erratically for a moment, the three-pronged claws of their tail and upper arms clacking in a way which echoed in the empty throne room as Pantheon's consciousness was pulled from their own body and through the expansive web of interlinked but primitive and bestial minds they held sway over before finally coming to a resting place in a new perspective.
Pantheon watched from the keen eyes of a small flock of avian Grimm some distance away from the settlement known to the human prey as Maiden-Gate, allowing them a birds' eye view of the proceedings made up of several vantage points at once whilst the actual attack approached from below.
The Creature of Grimm in question was a towering and lumbering saurian mass which reached several stories in height even when roaming on all fours though everything about its' build suggested that the monster could stand upright if it so chose.
Its' hide was a thick layer ridged and of tar-black scales which glistened in the sun as though still slick with the filth from which the thing had come which were further reinforced by the skeletal armour common to all Grimm, its' off-white bony surface being largely pristine and unblemished as a sign of how recently it had been grown; with ridged and spiked plates covering the back of the beast whilst its' chest was protected by curving and sturdy ribs which had some passing resemblance to the keel of a ship.
Overall the body of the Grimm was sturdy and sloping wedge of muscle, staring from the tip of a blunt and largely triangular tail which sported enough armour and overall heft to serve as a counterweight of sorts which leg to the hindquarters of the thing where its' body was the widest and whilst quadrupedal the highest point, where it sported a pair of legs encased in thick, studded armour which ended in three-toed claws and were wider at their calves than the average truck. The upper body of the Grimm was narrower but equally well muscled if one accounted for the change in proportions, leading down to a stretching and flexible neck built around a spine wherein each vertebra was spiked and studded and finally a blunt, rounded and sloping skull filled teeth meant for crushing and an armoured, reinforced bill that had more in common with the end of steel toed boot.
It was the forelimbs of the squat and ugly beast which were of the most concern however, with their entire extremities below the elbow encased in monstrous masses of bone which reduced the limbs to hefty and oversized clubs which bore only the crudest resemblance to actual arms and were ended in atrophied knuckles that had been reformed into protruding spikes and thumbs that had become jagged blades to create an appearance not unlike a trench-spike.
Both packs of lesser beasts and a single intelligent Grimm had failed, so now Pantheon intended to use the Iguanodon Grimm as a blunt weapon to swing at the walls of their target.
A single violent impulse through the Hive-Mind allowed Pantheon to drive their monster forward, a piercing, shrieking bellow oddly reminiscent of a some kind of marine mammal escaping it as it charged towards Maiden-Gate, galloping on its' four limbs with the weaponised arms of the thing tearing into the ground and its' earth-shaking presence attracting the attention of Maiden-Gate's defences before they had even come fully into view. The Iguanodon Grimm had been made to be capable however and Pantheon watched from the safety of several pairs of eyes belonging to Grimm too insignificantly small to be directly targeted in that moment as the reptilian behemoth weathered the initial salvos, shrugging off incoming explosive shells and rockets through sheer force or else rearing up onto its' hindlimbs and simply batting them aside with its' powerful limbs and skull until laser weapons were finally brought to bear against it, along with aircraft reining down withering fire from above which the saurian Grimm had no immediate answer for and so was forced to simple evade; stampeding forwards and weaving with a speed that nothing so bulky and massive should possessed and deafening bellows of pain escaping it the entire time as laser-fire burned trenches and furrows into its' hide and armour but failed to land a killing blow.
Finally the Iguanodon Grimm drew close enough to the walls of Maiden-Gate to launch an attack against them, rearing up onto its' back legs and bringing its' monstrous trench-spike arms back for a double-fisted blow which Pantheon intended to use to finally rip into the belly of this human prey and finally force Gestalt-Prime's fleshy allies to show themselves and the extent of their scheming; whatever Cyber-Grimm or other twisted and unfathomable creations lay beyond the foliage-covered walls would be forced to fight and be accounted for so that Pantheon could truly have the measure of their foe.
Except the blow never landed.
Even with the multiple points of view from which they saw it what followed still required a moment for the Grimm General to process it, their confusion almost costing Pantheon their connection to the Grimm they were using as vessels through a simple lapse in focus; they did however manage to witness the vines creeping their way across the walls of the settlement come to life and spear forwards to keep the arms of the Saurian monster at bay, lashing around them and dragging them apart whilst massive root networks erupted up from beneath ground which had become far fertile than Menagerie's blasted surface should have allowed and reshaped themselves into enormous living spears which burst upwards and impaled Pantheon's living weapon in several places.
It was then that the sentient Grimm saw the source of the attack and realised at once that they understood what was happening and yet at the same time all was clearly not as it seemed. Pantheon knew Nickel Polendina, they had both been in the service of Salem through differing degrees at one point and there could be no mistaking the figure which flew into view a moment later with erratic green light spilling free her eyes yet Nickel had never had such power before; however even as the Spring Maiden whose identity Pantheon had been previously unaware of destroyed the Iguanodon Grimm with a final strike, punching clean through its' skull with a glowing fist in a display of brutality which certainly familiar even if so much else about the android had changed Pantheon came to a simple realisation.
Nickel was not someone who would ally themselves with Gestalt-Prime or be party to the experiments which had produced the Cyber-Grimm, not after her previous interactions with a human scientist and the expansions of the Grimm, moreover she was now an ally of the same Hunters who Gestalt-Prime sought to depose which in turn meant that Maiden-Gate was not a bastion for their fellow thinking and sapient Grimm to hide in and that the lone human who had traversed the wasteland to come here had been doing so for her own reasons, entirely unrelated to the coming hostilities between Pantheon and Gestalt-Prime.
Meaning that Pantheon had wasted several days and given up the initiative with a single miscalculation.
It was at that moment that Pantheon allowed their consciousness to recede back into their own body, and leave the small avian Grimm whose eyes they had watched through to flutter away from the fading mist of the Iguanodon and steadily reforming plant-life of Maiden-Gate.
Once within their own body Pantheon let out a primal scream of rage and frustration which shook the entirety of the seafloor fortress and caused tidal disturbances which set those monitoring Remnants' waters on edge and yet, as their titanic fury subsided and Pantheon leaned forward on their throne, limbs shuddering as their fleshy cape was roughly detached from the nerve-tendrils burrowing into it their six eyes glowed a little brighter and their ferocious face twisted into the closest approximation of a smile the Grimm General could manage.
"It will be a challenge to kill you Gestalt-Prime and the challenge will make the Grimm stronger, you will play your role even if you think yourself above it" with that Pantheon let out a rumbling chuckle as they reflected on the truth of those words and the fact that in a matter of months their fellow sentient Grimm had done more to advance the cycle of creation and destruction which made the prey and therefore the Grimm themselves greater with each iteration than the previous decade of relative peace preceding it.
For a single fleeting moment Pantheon could almost think of themselves as akin to Salem with her own master plans.
Days had passed in an alternating blur of activity and periods of dull inactivity which had rendered Cornflower Blue both dazed and confused in a perpetual state of breathlessness as she waited for the other proverbial shoe to drop.
She had fled Pikesreach somewhere between Wednesday night and the early hours of Thursday morning and it had been Friday when she had finally been found and rescued a short distance away from a settlement she had come to discover was named Maiden-Gate, however in doing so she had found herself being sedated to keep her from becoming a risk to her rescuers and herself as her mental fortitude and resolve had finally given way to a blind and flailing fit of panic once within an aircraft. Once awake again she had been left reeling by the discovery that one of the Hunters who had come to her aid had been none other than Stygian, her only child who she had never expected to see again and the shock of this revelation, combined with the fact Cornflower had been unable to immediately speak with her son had threatened to send her into another bout of hysteria which her doctors had warned her would risk her recovery and would likely see her sedated again.
After several rounds of medical tests and several discussions with the individuals who purported to be in charge of Maiden-Gate wherein the beleaguered woman was questioned about where she had come from and what had happened, answering with careful guardedness Cornflower was told that she would be flown to Port Alistair, the Capital city of a united Kingdom of Menagerie, a statement which managed to convey in few words just how much time had passed and how much the outside world had changed since Cornflower had left Pikesreach. Her flight had been late on the Saturday night and Cornflower had been soothed by the knowledge that whilst she had not yet seen Stygian he and his team would be returning to Breaktide Academy in short order.
Sunday had been less active and yet proper rest had been entirely beyond her; upon her arrival to Port Alistair Cornflower had learned that she would not be residing within the academy founded by the legendary Team CFVY itself, but instead at one of several empty apartments within a nondescript collection of low-rise housing units located close to Breaktide which were owned by the academy and used to provide witness protection or temporary accommodation for those in need such as people whose homes had been destroyed by the Creatures of Grimm or people fleeing from abusive or dangerous circumstances as part of an initiative started by Velvet Scarlatina. Cornflower had been assured and informed that efforts to reintegrate her into Kingdom society would indeed be possible and indeed merely a matter of verifying and updating records in order verify her identity and then from there providing her with the help she needed in order to begin rebuilding her life far away from whatever it was she had escaped from and that the only reason that these efforts had not already begun was that it was a Sunday and many of the offices involved in starting the procedures she would need to go through were closed.
Finally Monday morning had come and with it the return of Cornflower's nerves.
"When did it all get so much" the Mouse Faunus whispered as she glanced out the window of her fourth floor apartment and took in the sight of the city beyond it, small by far than Vale and yet utterly dwarfing what had been in its' place when she and her fellow founders of Pikesreach had first ventured out into the wastelands in search of resources, profits and a bright future in an untamed wilderness. Port Alistair was orders of magnitude larger than Pikesreach, the collection of low-rise apartments she was currently residing in likely being able to house more people than the settlement she had lived in for roughly two decades and as such her keen Faunus hearing had grown unaccustomed to the noise of the city below, even away from the heart of the city things were so loud that Cornflower found her breathing laboured and a sense of claustrophobia and agoraphobia battling against one another for dominance amongst her fears as though the walls were closing in and yet if she should try and step beyond them she would find herself cornered by those people she had escaped from.
Yet another noise from another direction demanded her attention and caused her to whip around almost painfully fast.
Footsteps, drawing closer as someone made their way along the hallway that Cornflower's new apartment was located on. The bald and tattooed woman suddenly felt trapped and lost, wearing clothes that were not her own and feeling adrift and out of place within a small, single bedroom apartment whose décor seemed to be committed to tasteful neutrality and a sheer absence of real character without being bare or unfurnished that it was almost unpleasant in its' blandness however all such thoughts were pushed from Cornflower's mind a moment later as the footsteps reached her door and someone knocked against it firmly.
"Who is it?" she called out uncertainly, finding her voice hoarse and croaky after spending a considerable amount of time in silence but devoting more of her focus to scanning the bland and nondescript apartment for anything she might be able to use as a weapon, debating running into the small kitchen area and either taking a knife or boiling the kettle in preparation for a particularly desperate and violent form of defence before settling on taking a weighty ashtray that she would have no other use for and inching towards the door as an answer came.
"Huntress Coco Adel….Headmistress of Breaktide Academy" the answer gave Cornflower pause and she allowed herself to relax by the smallest amount, if the person beyond the door had simply said they were a Hunter Cornflower might have remained unconvinced however using a specific name, particularly one belonging to such a famous and iconic woman was another matter. She had always fawned over Hunters as a much younger and more naive woman and even now the Mouse Faunus could picture in her minds' eye what Coco Adel of Team CFVY had looked like; with her blunt weapon in one hand and key in the other she skulked quietly towards the door and slowly peered through the peephole to see a stylishly dressed woman wearing a beret and sunglasses who, despite having aged several years could only be the fearsome fashionista herself.
Cornflower opened the door.
"Miss Blue" Coco held out a hand to shake whilst removing her glasses with the other, only to cock her head at the sight of Cornflower's preoccupied hands.
"Excuse me a moment" Cornflower looked for somewhere to set down the ashtray though made no effort to apologise for her efforts to defend herself, something which Coco for her part seemed to accept and understand.
"Oh course" she nodded, stepping into the apartment behind the dark-skinned Faunus "My apologies for taking so long to pay you a visit and also for not sending word in advance, however I was told that you don't yet have a scroll and a written message would not have reached you before I did-"
"I want to know where my son is" Cornflower interrupted bluntly, seeing the freshly dressed and well-pampered if somewhat tired looking Hunter and suddenly feeling something angry and resentful bubbling up within her, the twisted remains of what had once been had admiration for Hunters but had been soured and polluted into something far less charitable through her years of hardship and constant exposure to Hunters who saw themselves as above and entirely separate to the people they were sworn to protect, herding them like cattle and affording them the same level of respect.
"Of course" Coco repeated, if the tone or the interruption itself bothered her she gave no indication and simply pressed on with the same pleasant politeness "Stygian and his team-mates returned from their training deployment in Maiden-Gate last night and are currently in class, though he had been made aware of your presence here and will no doubt make his way here at the first opportunity"
"Thank you" Cornflower finally breathed out, which Coco seemed to take as an invitation to step beyond the sense of professionalism she had been limiting herself to thus far.
"I'm a mother myself, I understand how you feel-"
"Do you?" Cornflower snapped, suddenly unable to contain the bitterness that had been welling up inside her at the sight of one of Remnant and Menagerie's heroes who had never come to Pikesreach's aid standing before her, successful, clean and well-fed whilst the task of rescuing her had fallen to children "Do you really think you know how I feel?"
"Not entirely" Coco admitted, at least having the decency to appear contrite as she tried to press on "But I would like to understand more….It's my understanding that you are, or were a resident of the independent settlement of Pikesreach?"
"Is independent settlement just a polite way of saying that it's a place you don't care about? Am I only here as long as I have answers that you want?" Cornflower demanded, allowing her anger to get the better of her and finding the release it provided gratifying; after so long living under the boot of Pikesreach's so-called defenders, the worst of what the Hunter academies' could produce the opportunity to rage at a Hunter who seemed unwilling to discipline her where she stood was a luxury she refused to allow to pass and Coco Adel, despite all of her famed temper and gung-ho leadership simply stood and allowed it to happen with a sadness in her eyes which told Cornflower all she needed to know, that Coco and the other Hunters in this city knew exactly what had become of Pikesreach when they had abandoned it.
That silent admission damned Coco further.
"I can promise you that the help you receive here is in no way contingent on any help you can provide myself or other relevant authorities. You will be given the means to build a life yourself here, or to leave and find a home elsewhere if you choose to….It would be of great help however if you could co-operate and tell us more about your circumstances, how you came to be on a road leading to Maiden-Gate and the current situation of Pikesreach"
"Why?" Cornflower demanded, a bitter laugh escaping her as her tail flexed uncomfortably around clothes which had been meant to accommodate her Faunus attribute "Menagerie has never cared about Pikesreach before? Not since you decided to cut your losses with us-"
"I was personally against the decisions that were made" Coco countered "But the appointed leaders of Pikesreach chose not to evacuate when it became clear that their expeditions had failed and that the Grimm were a far greater threat in the area than initially thought….The people of Pikesreach have always and will always be welcome to join the Kingdom of Menagerie-"
"You've spoke with my son, you know who was running Pikesreach! Hunters, like you-"
"Nothing like me!" Coco spat, some venom finally finding its' way into her voice "I would have had them thrown into the deepest pit I could find!"
"So you've spoken with my son" Cornflower huffed "You knew, from someone who saw it first hand and fled what was happening there but even then you chose not to help the people you claim were 'always welcome' to join you….But now suddenly you want to know what's happening to Pikesreach? What changed?"
"I was always against the political reasons for allowing the crimes of certain independent settlements to go unpunished" Coco ground out "But as for practical reasons….We simply do not have enough Hunters to help people as much as I would like to. Especially now, our ability to communicate and monitor Grimm activity within the wastes has been limited and the Kingdoms, all of them are on a man-hunt for a man by the name of-"
"So I'm not here to help you help Pikesreach at all? I'm here to help you help yourselves, Pikesreach and the people there be damned!" Cornflower grabbed the ashtray again and hurled it with all of her admittedly lacking might, though Coco gave no reaction at all and remained unflinching as the glass weight shattered against the wall beside her head.
"I understand that-
"GET OUT!" Cornflower screamed, voice ragged and eyes watery as the sheer gall of the Huntresses' claim pushed her anger to impossible heights "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING AND YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO! GET OUT!"
Enraged beyond the point of caring Cornflower looked around with manically darting eyes in search of anything else she could throw at Coco Adel however before she could find a suitably heavy object she heard the door to her safehouse apartment closing and was left whirling around suddenly again to see that the Huntress had excused herself and left as she had been told to.
Leaving Cornflower alone with a mix of fear and profound sadness churning her stomach like a sickness in place of her anger.
Monday had arrived and for Team MARS the return to Breaktide Academy had meant a return to classes following a weekend which had given them little, if any opportunity to relax and recover between multiple skirmishes with and small scale, probing incursion from the Creatures of Grimm and with what little time available to them largely being devoted to trying to process the mental and emotional toll that saving Cornflower Blue from the Kitsune had taken on them.
With Stygian naturally being the most displeased with current state of affairs.
On a purely academic and intellectual level the Mouse Faunus could understand the choices that had been made, first that his mothers' transportation was both a priority and something which would be best done in secret to avoid the attentions of anyone who might wish her harm given that it was unknown why she had chosen to flee from Pikesreach, especially not with the threat of bandits and mercenaries venturing out from places like Blackwater Cove becoming ever more present. Stygian could also, if he were to put his feelings aside appreciate Headmistress Adel's reasoning for insisting that Team MARS complete their training at Maiden-Gate, both to aid in keeping suspicions to a minimum and also simply because the newly reforged team still needed as much practice working together as they could get.
However on an emotional level Stygian had struggled to put aside his anger at the fact that choices and actions outside of his own control had made a liar of him and that despite promises he had made whilst she had been unconscious and unable to hear them the young man had not been present when his mother, whom he had not seen for several years awoke from her sedation and in fact was yet to speak to her at all; a reality that he had only been able to accept without some manner of response due to both Nickel Polendina's efforts to keep him distracted and more importantly the efforts of his team-mates, especially Athena-Jade to keep him from doing something he might regret.
Though sitting in Professor Altan's coliseum-like lecture hall and acting as though it were just another day and things were normal remained a challenging ordeal.
"Excellent….Would anybody like to volunteer to take part in out next demonstration, Miss Vermeil? Excellent, who else?" Arslan's voice managed to cut through Stygian's own distractions and as he watched the member of Team WAVE who had nominated herself to spar next rise and begin making her way towards the arena-stage itself the Mouse Faunus felt a sudden rush of something like adrenaline but with a distinct edge to it; he had no ill-will towards any member of Team WAVE and yet the urge to vent his frustrations by punching someone in the face would not be silenced.
"I'm up" the words were muttered beneath his breath and yet the keen hearing of each of his team-mates allowed them to intervene, Stygian had only half-raised his arm and begun standing up and out of his seat to draw Professor Altan's attention before he felt Regalia's hand clamp around his wrist to pull his arm down and Athena-Jade place her own arm across his chest to bar his way and keep him from standing whilst Astra, seeing the combat instructors' gaze falling on the team as a whole used the privileges extended to them as a team leader to signal that they were vetoing their team-mates' decision; something which Arslan nodded response to and instead cast her eyes elsewhere.
"Mister Greenback, if you please….And I would remind you that if your collection of caltrops or other tools are not cleared away at the end of this bout I will once again have you polish every surface on campus" the chorus of laughter which echoed through the class and followed after Laser as he rose to his feet and sauntered down towards the arena in an indirect and meandering route, no doubt plotting some underhanded method to out-think an opponent who was by now well-acquainted with his particular brand of nastiness served as the perfect cover and distraction for Stygian to push aside braids of blue-dyed hair that had fallen in front of his face as he was halted, running his hands through his cornrows before rounding on his team.
"What the hell man?" he hissed through gritted teeth, glaring with electric blue eyes at each of his friends in turn and addressing the question to each of them though it was Astra who answered.
"Had to make the call man" they sighed, giving a wry smile and a slight shrug "I know that look, you wouldn't have been sparring and you would have done something that I have to apologise for later….I get it, you're pissed off about what happened this weekend"
"Am I really that obvious" Stygian grumbled, slouching back into his seat and using the fact that he was currently clad in his combat gear rather than his uniform to pull his hood up and over his face in a gesture which could only be described as sulking.
"Yeah kinda" Athena-Jade chimed, gently swatting his shoulder whilst suppressing a snort at his antics "Besides, no way would you have put up a fight anyway. We're all still burned out after the weekend"
"Heh, that's probably why Professor Altan let Astra veto you without questioning it" Regalia noted.
"Yeah" the Deer the Faunus nodded "But listen, you know where your Mum's staying right? It's near here so I can drop you off after class if you want?"
"Thanks" Stygian replied with a slight shake of the head "But nah, I haven't seen her since I left….Since I ran away, I need this to just be me y'know?"
There were nods of understanding all round before the chance to speak further was taken from them by Regalia nodding in a certain direction to indicate that they were being approached and no longer had privacy, with the interloper being Wolfram Ironside whose appearance was preceded by the sound of the armour he wore as he made his way over from where the rest of Team WULF were sitting.
"You guys okay?" he asked without preamble.
"Since when do you ask about peoples' personal business?" Astra chuckled, remembering well their ex-boyfriends' distaste for anything that could be construed as meddling and his unwavering in the people around him and their ability to solve their own problems. In response Wolfram merely shrugged, looking less uncomfortable than he once might have.
"Since I tried to be less of a dick" he answered gruffly, stormy-grey eyes crinkling with a small smile "Besides I used to date an insufferable gossip"
"Fuck you too" Astra shot back with a broad smirk, though at the same time their hand seemed to instinctively find its' way to Regalia's. Stygian however turned away from the display of machismo and bantering, barb-ridden friendship between the team leaders and exes and instead met Athena-Jade's eyes, who rolled them to show that she shared the Mouse Faunus's feelings.
"But seriously though?" Wolfram's questioning caught both Stygian and Athena-Jade's attention again "You guys were out of class on Friday, away all weekend and now you're back you look out of it….What's up?"
"Additional training, we basically got sent on a mission early" Stygian answered, locking eyes with Astra and managing to silently convey a question which was answered with a nod before continuing "Ran into an intelligent Grimm, one that could really fight"
"Shit" Wolfram muttered, a slow exhale escaping him as he processed the information "Thinking Grimm, they're fucking scary and I don't scare easily….Let's hope that nut-job Nero who was on the news doesn't try and recruit this one as well right?"
"Right" Astra answered dully as they, like everyone else who had been present in the stadium in Neo Vale and had to fight the Cyber-Grimm directly found the idea of joking about the situation to be in poor taste; more so than most in fact owing to the fact that Zirconia Shadowmoon had been a trusted and dear friend.
"Shit, my bad" Wolfram muttered, realising a moment too late exactly what he had said and the mistake he had made; struggling with an apology as he always had the blue-grey haired young man instead retreated and left Team MARS to their own devices as it was clear they wanted him to.
Though Astra, true to form did manage to place a small bet on exactly what underhanded methods Laser would use before his ongoing sparring match ended.
Several hours had passed since Cornflower's outburst and tirade towards Coco Adel and the rush had not quite left her, instead taking the form of an electric and nervous energy which refused to let her settle and yet at the same time refused to allow her to do anything truly productive.
After so many years of demanding physical labour dominating much of her time the idea of idling was one that no longer came naturally to her and so the middle-aged woman had taken what meagre cleaning supplies there were within her small apartment and set about wiping away any possible lingering traces of whoever had dwelt here before herself simply so that her hands would be occupied, it was a task she had given up before its' completion as her mind continued to wander and circle. She had hoped that a hot shower would help and indeed compared to the facilities at Pikesreach her new accommodations' consistent water pressure, copious and readily available amounts of warm water and scented shampoos had indeed been luxurious however it had done nothing to distract her from thoughts which only grew louder and more demanding as her solitude continued and the sight of her tattooed body in the mirror was a decidedly unwelcome reminder of everything she had fled from.
Eventually, with a small meal managing to dull the worst of her negative thoughts Cornflower had attempted to turn her mind to some of the vast amounts of paperwork that would be needed to begin her reintegration into the Kingdoms' society, a dizzying ordeal which had quickly left her staring in wide-eyed and defeated disbelief at the sheer scale of the bureaucracy involved and the cold and detached, deliberately inscrutable way in which everything was phrased. Privately Cornflower found herself wondering if driving anybody attempting to complete the process to despair was the objective, which left her bitterly noting that at least the cruelty of Pikesreach was deliberate and personal.
It was then that her thoughts were disturbed once more by a knock at the door.
"Who is is?" the Mouse Faunus demanded, forcing a degree of commanding authority into her words that she in no way felt capable of backing up though, frightened as she was she still took a small precaution to protect herself by clutching a small and makeshift weapon in her hand. There were knives in her kitchen area however after living for so long in a place where right and wrong or guilt could be decided by the whim of a person with power rather than facts she had learned to take certain precautions, an especially large and sharp fragment of the glass ashtray she had thrown earlier with tape wrapped around one half of it to make a small handle would pierce flesh just as effectively and could be more easily disposed of.
A voice from beyond the door caused the shard of glass to fall from her hand.
"Mum?….It's me" Stygian was numb and yet she was in motion, body acting of its' own accord as she fumbled for her key and darted across the apartment with a nimbleness she had not known she still possessed, frantically scrabbling with lock and swinging the door open with an unexpected amount of force which failed to fully register in her own mind, lost beneath the simple joy and relief which came with taking in the sight of her only child. She pulled him into a hug and clutched him to her with all of her might and Stygian returned the gesture, though he held onto his mother as though she were brittle and might shatter in his grip; a notion which Cornflower noted as she gazed up at him through teary eyes might not be so unthinkable given how much muscle he had gained and how much taller her had grown.
He'd even dyed his hair blue for some inexplicable reason.
"Look at you" she breathed out, voice trembling as she spoke "Look at you Stitch, you look like a real Hunter now"
"Yeah" Stygian sniffled, the younger of the two Faunus just as overcome as his mother as she led him into the apartment; trying desperately to pretend he had not heard the note of sadness and disappointment in her voice.
"They tell me it was you who saved me from the Grimm?"
"Yeah, my team and I….I stayed with you while you were kept under, I wanted to be there when you woke up but I couldn't I….I'm sorry, for everything" Stygian's voice cracked and finally gave way to a choked sob and Cornflower saw the look of guilty disgust and fury on her sons' face as his eyes darted to her shorn hair and the spidery collection of tattoos intended to mark her out to the people of Pikesreach as someone untrustworthy. She swallowed thickly, keeping her own inevitable breaking point at bay a while longer as she tried to gauge her own swirling maelstrom of emotions and found no small amount of anger intermingling with the happiness, relief and other things too nuanced to name.
"I don't need you to be sorry for everything" she breathed out, gesturing to her own scalp as she continued "I don't need you to be sorry for this, you're my son and I would have withstood any punishment to know that you were safe….But I didn't know you were safe, you left and I didn't know where or why or if you'd managed to find somewhere safe or if you were dead in the wastes! I could have taken the interrogations and the marking and knowing that people wanted me dead and anything else that they chose to punish me with Stygian, because at least it would have been better than that!"
"I'm sorry" Stygian repeated, voice lowered to something barely audible "I didn't….Damn it I should have brought you with me, I should have found a way to-"
"You and I know damn well that we wouldn't both have made it" Cornflower snorted "Just tell me why? What on Remnant made you think it was a good idea to try and run, you know what they were like?"
"Exactly!" Stygian exclaimed "I know that they would have found a way to kill me, or let the Grimm do it….Besides, you've told me stories my whole life about Remnant and what the Kingdoms were like and how the Hunters everywhere else are better people….I wanted to see it?"
"So….You ran away because you thought there was something better out there" Cornflower, despite how grateful she was to see her son alive and well could not keep a derisive snort from her words "I suppose your Dad would have been proud of you"
The words felt like a slap to the face and Stygian reacted accordingly, flinching back and huddling in on himself within the folds of his oversized jacket.
"I always meant to come back" he forced the words out "Always Mum I promise, I was gonna come to an academy and learn to be a better Hunter then they'd ever teach me to be, I was gonna make people care what was happening to Pikesreach and then make it stop-"
"All hail, Stygian the conqueror!" Cornflower spread out her arms and let out a bitter barking laugh which gave way to a choked, cracking sound as she shook her head in abject defeat "Of all the things you could have been you chose to be a Hunter, you chose to be like them and what they wanted you to be….You could have been so much more than they were"
"You keep saying how the 'were'" Stygian choked out, forcing himself to focus on that singular detail more than his mothers' anger and disappointment in him "And you never talk about….Him-"
"Your father is dead" Cornflower needed to take a deep breath before delivering that truth but once she had braced herself it was far easier to continue "Though it's not like he was every a Father to you in the first place….You're right, he probably wouldn't have stopped his wife from setting you up to be killed by the Grimm if she'd tried. Good riddance to all of them"
"All?" Stygian breathed the word out, electric blue eyes wide and his entire body seeming to sway in a breeze that only he could feel as he struggled to process the words he was hearing and in that moment Cornflower managed to extend some sympathy to son who had fled and abandoned her, it was likely that many of those who died when Pikesreach was taken were people he had known and trained alongside, the younger fighters being his peers since childhood.
"We were attacked" she murmured "They made an example of our Hunters"
"Who?" Stygian whispered, swallowing thickly as the foundations of everything he had built his career as a Hunter upon were swallowed from beneath him "Is that why you ran? What happened to Pikesreach Mum is it still there? People need to know what's going on!"
In that moment Cornflower's anger and grief for the life he had lost exploded to the surface for the second time that day.
"DAMN IT BOY YOU SOUND LIKE COCO ADEL!" Stygian stepped back from her, jaw working silently as he fumbled for a response which only drove the older Faunus on "I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN THREE YEARS AFTER YOU RAN AWAY WITHOUT A WORD AND YOU COME HERE ASKING THE SAME DAMN QUESTIONS SHE BOTHERED ME WITH! DID YOU ONLY COME HER BECAUSE SHE PUT YOU UP TO IT?"
"NO!" Stygian yelled, tears spilling down his cheeks at the accusation "Mum I swear-"
"GET OUT!" she cut across him "Just go, run away again!….I don't recognise my own son and right now I can't stand to look at you"
Stygian's lip quivered as he struggled to find any possible words that might fix the tragedy his reunion with his mother had become, only to realise a moment later that there were none to be found and instead turning and departing.
Leaving Cornflower to collapse into a corner of the room and sob as the reality of what she had just done set in.
With classes concluded for the day and the idea of entering the gym so soon after a weekend filled with skirmishes against the Creatures of Grimm being utterly anathema to them both Astra and Regalia had found themselves with some free time.
Stygian had set off towards the nearby low-rise apartment buildings owned by the academy where his mother was currently being housed and Athena-Jade had, in her partners' absence decided to begin catching up on the work that Team MARS had missed by being deployed to Maiden-Gate the previous Friday, attacking the problem with all of the drive and dedication that had been drilled into her through both the best education available to the upper echelons of upper Atlesian society and also the realities of being raised by Weiss Slate, formerly Schnee and disappearing in the general direction of the library with a collection of amalgamated notes she had managed to procure from her various class-mates.
Astra and Regalia by contrast had shown no such enthusiasm and had after showering and changing to clothes that were more comfortable and better suited to lounging peacefully made their way to one of the more popular common areas used by students of all year groups to simply relax and socialise for a while, with the leader of Team MARS spending a decent amount of time partaking in their pass-time of keeping up with the latest goings' on within the academies' social scene and using that as a pretext and opening to both speak briefly with Wolfram and ensure that there were no hard feelings' after their earlier brusqueness and to speak more with some younger students with whom they were hardly acquainted and offer some useful advice until eventually Regalia had suggested, with a hushed whisper in her partners' ear that maybe the two of them could return to their dormitory for a while.
At which point Astra had allowed themselves to be led, without question by the Racoon Faunus.
The dormitory door was flung open and any onlookers would have been treated to the comical sight of Astra being all but flung into the room as their bushy-tailed girlfriend excitedly pounced, kicking the door closed behind them and closing the distance so that she could wrap her arms around Astra's shoulders and pepper them in kisses which trailed from their lips to their neck before Regalia simply buried her face in Astra's neck and shoulder before giving a contented sigh.
After a few moments of being breathlessly swept up in the sudden affections of their girlfriend Astra's mind seemed to engage enough for them to properly take advantage of the situation at which point they moved their hands from where they had been almost blindly trying to find purchase so that one hand was lost within the coarse fur of Regalia's tail, drawing in a pleased sound from her as they gently scratched before their other hand came to caress her cheek and chin, thumb gently brushing against her lower lip as they moved her head so that the two of them were eye to eye.
"I love you" the words left Astra's lip unbidden and without thought or any particular motivation other than that they were true and in response Regalia let out a sound somewhere between a squeal a yelp and a giggle of pure giddy excitement which the Deer Faunus would have laughed at the sound of were they not assaulted by a fresh wave of kisses. This time however Astra had enough initiative to respond, hands cupping Regalia's cheeks as they kissed her back with equal enthusiasm and quickly felt her tongue against their lips; from their Astra's hands quickly found their girlfriends' hips in order to keep them both balanced and steady whilst Regalia, suddenly urgent and insistent began directing them back to their bunks and placed her hands on the frame of Astra's bed, briefly trapping them in place before slowly directing her partner down onto the edge of her own bed.
"Heh" she managed to pant out, chest heaving "I should have a line for this but I was never really into those kinds of movies"
"You wanna stop?" Astra offered, their hands still placed gently on Regalia's hips so that they could guide her down into a more gentle embrace and simple cuddle with her for a while; instead Regalia slipped down onto their lap and draped their arms around her shoulders and regarded them with a half-lidded and hungry expression.
"Heh, absolutely not" with that the two of them were attacking and claiming one another's mouths again, with Astra being forced to throw a hand behind them to keep their balance but quickly using their situation to their advantage as they guided the ravenous Racoon Faunus into a more comfortable position straddling their waist before switching from kissing her lips to kissing and gently biting at her neck, taking the feeling of Regalia's hands clutching and grasping at the back of their neck and at one of their antlers to keep them in place as encouragement to take things tentatively further. Astra's free hand trailed to the edge of the tank-top bearing the academies' logo that Regalia had changed into, one that was less cropped than her usual choices and slowly drifted beneath the fabric; listening to the way the Racoon Faunus moaned and gasped as they trailed slowly from her hipbone up and along her abs at a torturous pace until finally reaching the underside of her left breast.
Regalia did not swear often but a slew of gasped and breathy curses escaped her as Astra's thumb brushed across her nipple, followed by a keening whine before she took both of Astra's wrists and pinned them down above the Deer Faunus's head; relishing the way her partner moaned slightly and their eyes fluttered at the sensation of being handled in such a way. There were a few moments of heavy, apprehensive tension between the two of them as Regalia leaned forward and over Astra with their faces mere inches apart until, with her voice shaking and breathing heavy she managed to speak.
"So….We've got some privacy and heh, we kinda spoke a little while we were at Maiden-Gate; y'know before everything happened"
"We did" Astra nodded, being pleased with the way the conversation was going but not wanting to rush or force things in anyway and so instead allowing Regalia to totally control the pace and direction "What have you got in mind"
In response Regalia smiled broadly and in a way that was more playful than seductive managed to slide herself backwards and off of the bed so that she was knelt on the ground in front of Astra, using the same motion to tug at the waist band of their sweatpants before leaning forward and planting a series of slow kisses along her partners toned stomach and hipbones with an immediate and visible reaction, followed by another as Astra's hands instinctively reached into Regalia's grey-brown streaked hair and found purchase, whilst fighting the crude urge to grasp her long, bound lions' tail of hair and tug at it; with the stimulation tearing gasps of pleasure from both of them at the same time.
"Sorry….I can stop if I'm not doing it right?" Regalia offered, uncertain and suddenly self-conscious only to be bolstered and left more than a little smug at the sheer want and need in Astra's voice.
"Fuck no, please don't stop….I mean, not unless you want to obviously I don't wanna-" they trailed off, their need to assure Regalia that they were enjoying the situation and at the same time that she was under no obligation to continue being silenced as she slowly pulled the Deer Faunus's boxer shorts down and planted a few more slow kisses around their hips as she took in the sight before wrapping a hand around the base.
"I never used to get the appeal of stuff like this before I met you, you were the one to help me figure things out and tell me the words I needed to understand the way I feel about things" Regalia reached out and laced the fingers of her free hand through Astra's, listening to their hitching breaths and slow whimpering gasps of pleasure whilst she acted on instinct, stroking slowly and peppering kisses along their length as she continued to speak "It's not the sex and touching and stuff itself that's great, it's the people that you share with that make it so special….And you're you Astra, you're my best friend, my partner and I love you so much; look at me"
Astra did as she asked, sea-green eyes meeting deep purple.
"Let me know if I'm doing it right, okay?" with barely more than a desperate croaking sound as acknowledgement Regalia's tongue trailed from base to tip, swirling around the head and from there Astra's eyes rolled back, their lids fluttering as their hips twitched; which Regalia took as a single to bob her head and take them into her mouth.
Words were beyond Astra but they managed to convey that she was doing an exceptional job all the same.
Athena-Jade had not particularly wanted to spend so much of her Monday afternoon sequestered away in the campus library however it a sacrifice she had felt forced to make, she had after all missed multiple lessons during the first week of the semester and an entire Fridays' worth of classes on top of that was something she deemed utterly unacceptable for any reason short of severe illness or misery; in fact if the snowy-haired Bear Faunus considered the situation for too long she found herself suppressing a shudder as a voice not entirely unlike both her mother and Aunt Winter called out from the back of her mind that she was not doing enough.
To assuage her own private guilt she had taken notes from several classmates, with Diabla Fuego surprisingly being willing to contribute considerably and from there disappeared into the winding and labyrinthine shelves of books. After several hours however she had done all she felt she could, copying notes for both herself and her team-mates who undoubtedly ask for them later and reading and studying intensely until she felt she had a more solid grasp on the subject matter than simply being able to repeat data by rote before finally deciding that enough was enough and that tending to her empty stomach was now a priority.
Upon arriving at the canteen she found found it uncomfortably crowded and whilst she was not in the same paranoid and erratic head-space that she had arrived at Breaktide in a few weeks ago which had seen her perpetually at the verge of a breakdown she was still in no mood to be hemmed in, surrounded and gossiped about by those around her, a reality which she feared would forever be the case simply owing to who she was and so, seeing that the sun was beginning to set outside Athena had taken her food and departed, deciding that she would much rather enjoy the last of the late summer sunlight whilst it was still bright and warm but accompanied by a pleasant breeze and not so airless and scorching that her Atlesian constitution was upset by it.
She had not expected to find Stygian Blue outside in a state of clear distress.
"Stitch? Stitch!" She called out as she caught sight of her partners' familiar jacket and realised that the Mouse Faunus was slumped and huddled in on himself in the space between two of Counsellor Yatsuhashi Daichi's flowerbeds, with everything about his posture and appearance setting off alarm bells in the Bear Faunus's mind before had even managed to catch a glimpse of his face. Without hesitation she closed the styrofoam tray that her chicken salad had been served in and set it aside before using a glyph to propel herself more swiftly through the raised and decorative flowerbeds which housed specimens from all across Remnant, bringing herself to Stygian's side in a matter of seconds and pulling back his hood only to let out a startled gasp at sight of his electric blue eyes puffy and bloodshot from crying.
"Oh my gosh, what happened?" Athena dropped down to a crouch to be at her partners' eye level, heart suddenly hammering in her chest as she realised the obvious and most likely cause of Stygian's distress "Your Mum, is she okay? Did something happen?"
"She hates me" Stygian croaked out, voice hoarse and broken "And my Dad's dead"
"What….Wait what?" Athena demanded, sapphire blue eyes widening in shock as each answer threw her even further off balance; though her words did seem to spur Stygian onwards and give him the motivation to do something more than simply wallow in his misery and so he pressed on, the act of talking hopefully being beneficial to him in some small way.
"It's not like he was ever actually a Dad to me or anything, but he was always around y'know….He was always there, one of the people leading Pikesreach and it's just….It's a lot, I keep thinking about what if things were different and what could have been and I know it's stupid but I can't stop"
"It's not stupid" Athena assured them gently, tentatively reaching out with a broad and calloused hand to squeeze at her partners' shoulder and then, seeing the way Stygian all but collapsed into the faintest of touches wrapped a powerful arm around him.
"Apparently someone attacked Pikesreach and took out the Hunters….Everything I was going to do, freeing my home and making things better; it doesn't matter now" the Mouse Faunus let out a bitter and watery chuckle.
"Is that why your Mum ran from Pikesreach?" Athena braced herself, hazarding the question and doing her best to prepare herself for whatever answer came.
"I think so" Stygian nodded, leaning in to Athena a little closer "But she was just so angry….She blames me for so much and she's right, I ran away without saying a word, I ruined so much and-"
"No" Athena-Jade shook her head gently, turning to fave her partner so that she could place both hands on his shoulders and rest her forehead on his "She's angry, she's hurt and she's been through a lot….It's not your fault and she'll see that"
"I just" Stygian's voice hitched and cracked as he wiped "I wish I could have done more….I feel like such a disappointment, like I wasn't enough-"
"It's not the same" Athena offered gently, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth "But that's a little bit of how I feel a lot of the time so-"
"You've never been a disappointment" Stygian's brown furrowed "Not really, not too anybody who matters….You really are great AJ"
with that the mouse forward leaned closer and Athena-Jade promptly placed a hand over his mouth and held him at bay, shaking her head as she spoke softly.
"Don't do that" she whispered "Please….Don't, we were having a moment there"
"I'm sorry" Stygian sniffled and the two remained silent for a moment longer before Athena nodded slowly in understanding, realising that whilst she had been raised with physical touch and comfort as a commonplace and normal part of her life without certain connotation Stygian himself might not have been and had likely never had friends he was enough with at Pikesreach to share such things with and so, deciding that she would rectify that situation she pulled her partner into a tight but gentle hug.
Stygian, overwhelmed buried his face in her shoulder and sobbed his way through his feelings; with the two of the remaining in the flowerbeds as the sun continued to set.
Night had come to Menagerie and to the settlement of Pikesreach, which for High Speaker Aefen Cruor of the Path of the Apex Being, formerly known to those who had considered her a peer as Doctor Shirley Aefen, meant that she was free to conduct what promised to culmination of her life's work and her ultimate vindication and act of defiance against all who had dared to mock, censure and academically exile her.
The people of Pikesreach worked long and hard and very few of them had reason or motivation to be roaming the settlement, much less inadvertently wandering into the deepest bowels of what had become Aefen's lair; its' morose and haunting aesthetic speaking to her with such an intensity that she found herself wondering if she might keep the place once her works were completed.
What few inhabitants of the small and insular place might have allowed curiosity to overcome their more sensible instincts had also been kept at bay by a small influx of reinforcements sent by Nero and the former Hunters and most experienced fighters who now took responsibility for the settlements' defences beginning a process of quietly bolstering their activities and dissuading people, without outright saying it, from being anywhere without good reason.
A local had fled for reasons of her own, reasons which Aefen didn't care to concern herself with however the effects and possible consequences were obvious; if that lone intrepid soul managed to reach the Kingdom of Menagerie before being ravaged by the wastes then Hunters would come in unprecedented numbers and even Gestalt-Prime's presence bolstering the Cyber-Grimm would not be enough to turn the tide of the battle, however a few more warm bodies to throw at such a threat might allow enough time for important personnel such as herself to escape. This possibility, along with the ever-present threat of a fresh assault from the Creatures of Grimm had seen those still present outside amongst the people of Pikesreach committed to manning its' walls, performing constant checks and patrols whilst also ensuring that Cyber-Grimm, what little mechanised elements remained from the initial attack and wall-mounted artillery were operational and ready to attack should any foe at all emerge from the howling and freezing winds and tearing clouds of dust that filled the night.
It had even been enough to ensure that Zirconia Shadowmoon's attention was turned elsewhere.
Aefen allowed herself a small sneer behind her customary mask as she considered the Grasshopper Faunus, before shaking the thought aside and consoling herself with the fact that Nero's child did not pose a threat to her even if Nero were somehow to learn of her actions and experiments here; Gestalt-Prime would see to that. With the matter decided in her mind the scientist turned cult leader shifted her focus more fully to the matter at hand.
Namely the person about to be experimented on.
"Oh hush now for goodness sake" she chided irritably as she gazed into largely automated and yet incredibly precise operating theatre of the most macabre kind from within the safety of an isolated control room adjacent to it. Her words were directed at the theatres' sole occupant, a thin but rugged looking individual whose tattoos Aefen had come to understand meant that they were a metalworker or something similar, not one of the settlements' fighters and yet still they were one of the people taken prisoner for their efforts to assassinate members of Nero's revolutionary faction and was in fact one of the last few remaining examples of such prisoners. They had been stripped bare, with Aefen' curiosity far outweighing any regards for modesty or simple decency and from there tightly restrained and fastened to one of a number of cold and utilitarian operating slabs where they had also been gagged to muffle their scream, curses and other protests though despite this they continued and it was this which had drawn Aefen's attention.
"You can consider this a punishment, in which case you brought it on yourself really" she continued, twirling her cane theatrically with one hand whilst continuing to enter commands and make preparations with the other "Or, you can be more reasonable and more intelligent and think of this as a step forward into the unknown and a chance to advance Remnant as a whole….In which case this is a privilege and an honour and frankly the most important moment of your life"
The muffled screams and curses grew more desperate, the pitch of the captives' voice rising to something impressive as tearful pleading began to become interspersed with the insults.
"Regardless" Aefen said simply, utterly unmoved by the display and continuing as planned.
With a final flurry of keystrokes another attempt at perfecting her process of truly hybridising humanity and the Creatures of Grimm began, a chance to revolutionise entire fields of medicine and communications, a chance for peace and the evolution and furthering of the human race if only she could master the forces she wielded. The pair of Cyber-Grimm standing sentry beyond both the operating theatre and the control room bristled, stirring at the sound of mechanical armatures whirring as they moved smoothly into place; one such spindly metallic limb featured a cutting laser and with a small beam of light it removed the gag around the test subjects' mouth yet before they could scream the second armature slid into place and fitted a gas mask which was in turn connected to a shielded and armoured container filled with some dreadful roiling and shifting darkness which resembled a bottled thunderstorm.
Thus far Aefen's efforts to modify the process which created Cyber-Grimm for use on human subjects had been failures and utterly fatal, with the only differences being the amount of agony the subject endured before their expiration and so, refusing to be defeated by minutiae and details now that she had understood the broad strokes the twisted scientist had begun altering the methods by which the Grimm-tissue was administered; with this instance involving vaporised Grimm matter and fungal spores harvested from previous failures.
"For science" She whispered behind her mask, waiting with bated breath.
Several seconds passed where nothing seemed to happen, the armatures moving back once the cocktail of unspeakable substances was administered and inhaled and the test subject, whose name Aefen had seen no reason to learn fell silent with their breathing coming in shallow and wavering gasps as they went into shock.
"Damn it" Aefen huffed as the subject fell still and silent, their thrashing ceasing only a few moments before their vital signs even as a web of thick, pulsing black veins began to etch itself across rapidly paling flesh; leaving blossoming stains of red and purple beneath the subjects' skin as the Grimm tissue burrowed and gouged its' way deeper in what Aefen suspected would be another futile attempt.
Then the deceased victim convulsed.
A single shuddering motion saw Aefen blinking rapidly in surprise beneath her mask and before she could even check the vital signs to be certain that the person before her was in fact deceased the body was wracked by a spasm which saw their back arch to such an extent that the sound of several restraints giving way was lost beneath the sickening, snapping crunch of their spine and from there things only became more gruesome.
The rabid corpse thrashed and flailed until it was free of all of the restraints, leaving parts of itself behind in the process and letting out an endless, wailing shriek as it did so whilst its' jaw began to distend and detach itself as a second muscular system, one comprised of ropey black flesh began to superimpose itself over human tissue. The places where blood had pooled within the body most notably erupted outwards, the skin wrinkling as though it had been soaked in a bath for too long before being calcified in an instant as writhing masses of an ebony substance somewhere between sinew and moss ripped their way out and from their small mushroom caps began to sprout.
The skull of the test subject cracked as an almost random, senseless collection of bone, fangs and pulpy fungal tissue exploded outwards from every orifice except its' mouth where their tongue was instead mutated into a lashing, spiked appendage more muscular and coherent than the tendrils which had now also begun to grow from the tears in flesh that had been sustained when the corpse-thing ripped itself free. Aefen watched in a mixture of disgust, horror, excitement and keen academic interest as the crippled corpse began to stand, supported the central bulk of what had grown from the ruined human body on several of its' sinuous tendrils; its' wailing changing tone and becoming a fierce battle-cry.
And then it charged.
Aefen threw herself at the back wall of her control room as the corpse-thing launched itself across the operating theatre towards the divider between them. This in itself was a vast amount of progress, thus far the most any of her experiments had been able to do was shamble listlessly and without any real purpose as they screamed and groaned, the action likely performed without any input from either the host or the Grimm tissue; though as the current experiment hammered against the clear but mercifully impenetrable barrier with both its' human and inhuman limbs and screamed hatefully as it ground its' twisted and morphed teeth against the divider Aefen could not find it within herself to be pleased with her work.
The Cyber-Grimm had bristled and each of the pair chittered and snarled, the thrum of primary weapons being primed filling the air reassuringly, yet neither of the tamed monsters would enter the operating theatre without direct instructions to do; an order Aefen became increasingly tempted to give with each passing second until finally, with no more warning than a choking gurgle and a vomited stream of blood, obsidian ichor and other fluids and filth the test subject ceased in all actions and fell silent before falling backwards entirely still.
"Remain….Remain on standby" Aefen breathed out, grasping her skull-topped staff in both hands in an effort to keep them from trembling; taking several moments in a desperate but ultimately ineffective effort to calm herself whilst at the same time peering down into the operating theatre where the deceased subject showed no signs of reanimating themselves again. It took Aefen a while longer to bring her heart-rate and breathing back under control though by the time she managed to do so she had found her intellect and keen observations already hard at work, specifically focusing on a thin, wispy miasma of darkness not unlike that which followed the death of a creature of Grimm as the gaseous substance arose from the various mushroom like growths littering the body of the corpse and twisting through the air with a writhing and sinister path that suggested that they were far more than they seemed.
"I need to contain a sample of those spores" the managed to sound authoritative as she spoke to herself, though the doubted anybody else would be convinced "Then burn and cleanse everything else….Contamination would be catastrophic at this stage"
Author's Notes:
FIRST THING'S FIRST: I am posting this chapter a day early, do not worry there are no long term changes to the schedule coming. It is however my Nephew's first birthday on Saturday and I will not be uploading whilst performing Uncle Duties.
So….I planned to take whole week off of writing this story in order to plan out Chapters 118-126.
What actually happened was that I did that in two days, did some planning for an original story that I keep telling myself that I'm going to write one day and then wrote Chapter 118 anyway, because why ever not?
So, welcome to the back half of Vol.07….We have breakdowns, body horror and a blowjob but not strictly in that order.
And it's only gonna get wilder.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
So right from the offset a couple days gave passed, we've gone from Friday afternoon to Monday morning and Pantheon has spent that whole time feeling out Maiden-Gate's defences.
I deliberately wrote it in a way that made it clear that Nickel Polendina had not been out and dealt with the Grimm in person for reasons that become obvious.
Smart Grimm didn't work, swarms didn't work….So have an Iguanodon with trench-spike fists, a big meaty lump to hit things with.
….I made something really cool, just for it to get snuffed out without landing a single hit; sometimes I really do think that I'm a dickhead.
But Maiden-Gate's defences are cool though, last time the place was seriously attacked it was by Gestalt-Prime and Nickel just wrapped a living shield around the place.
The reason Nickel had to be held back is because Pantheon knows Nickel and would realise as soon as they saw her that they'd made a misstep.
Pantheon's reaction was pure Salem there….Scream until everything breaks.
So this is what Cornflower's being doing….Getting treated, getting questioned and not managing to see Stygian before being flown out to Port Alistair.
Velvet dated Adam for a while in Downward Spiral, I think the idea of Velvet opening up shelters and refuges near the academy makes perfect sense.
She's gonna have some serious culture shock….I mean she's originally from the Kingdoms but it's been roughly twenty years; if you lived in a cult compound from 2003 until now you'd be a mess when you came out.
And we see straight away from Cornflower's first interactions that she's not in a good place mentally or emotionally but that frankly it's completely understandable all things considered.
The really fucked up part is that Cornflower is kinda right, Coco is primarily interested in Pikesreach because she wants to know if Nero is there; it's a matter of the Kingdoms' security not Pikesreach's well being.
Oh yeah Stygian is well within his rights to be pissed off at everything and everyone and absolutely wants to have a scuffle with someone just to work off some frustrations.
Laser still fights dirty.
Yeah Astra definitely knows that look and has been there themselves, so they and the rest of Team MARS were looking out for Stitch there by keeping him from being an idiot.
This was a good chance to show that Wolfram's grown a bit, he used to never ask questions about how people were doing or involve himself in personal problems.
Team WULF were actually the first ones to fight Gestalt-Prime after they became truly intelligent back in Vol.02; so the little fourth wall break type comment about Nero was allowed.
I normally don't like doing two scenes with the same character back to back but it's really the only way this chapter would flow so I had to switch back to Cornflower's perspective and do it that way.
That constant buzzing around and need to be doing something is definitely relatable.
….As is the annoyance with paperwork.
In case of emergency, a glass shiv that can be broken and disposed of so there's no evidence.
And here's the reunion….And in true mother fashion one of her first thoughts is "Why has child died his hair blue?".
And once again, it's hard to hear it but Cornflower is absolutely allowed to be pissed off at Stygian.
So there's why Stitch ran, he dances around exactly why he disappeared as soon as he had a chance but the truth is that he knew that at least one of the Hunters running Pikesreach, to whom he was directly answerable would happily see him killed.
So there's the emotional gut punch of knowing some of what happened to Pikesreach and knowing that the man who fathered him but was never a Dad is gone, along with plenty of other people….But balanced against the fact that he doesn't know who did it because Cornflower hasn't told anybody that part yet.
And now something completely different to, ahem….'Spice' things up.
Okay starting the scene with Regalia all but yeeting Astra into the dorm put a smile on my face.
"I should have a line for this but I was never really into those kinds of movies" somehow she made that sound smooth.
Astra has bottom tendencies lol.
Okay on the one hand this might actually be favourite sex scene that I've ever written and it's not even sex, it's just a blowjob but somehow it's more intimate.
On the other hand...Throat-Goat Regalia confirmed; she's a natural lol.
AJ does not let herself slack on studying, ever.
She also is still note entirely back to where she used to be and still doesn't want to sit anywhere crowded if she can help it, just on the off chance that they're talking about her.
Of course she was the one to find Stitch, these two need more partner-bonding moments.
"She hates me and my Dad's dead" now that's a one-two punch combo for the soul.
Without knowing what happened to Pikesreach exactly Stygian doesn't really know if there's anything left for him to do there.
Of course AJ hugged him, she's a hugger….And of course he was an idiot and tried to kiss her, he's emotionally distraught, has less frame of reference for how to cope than he should have and also happens to think AJ is ridiculously hot and cool.
But yeah, don't do that.
And now, welcome to the horror show.
So Pikesreach is still in a state of high alert, which is actually working in Aefen's favour because everyone is too busy to bother her; even Zirconia….Although Aefen doesn't know anything that's happening with her really.
Everything about Aefen's speech to the test subject right down to the 'Regardless' when she flipped the last switch shows how much she wants to appear like the aloof and detached scientist, but also how much that isn't her and she is really personally invested in this.
You actually thought that the victim was gonna stay dead? I already told you she's made shambling zombies.
So enjoy a mix of World War Z, Last of Us and Grimm flavoured tendrils.
It tried and it failed, it was a deliberate dramatic fake out and you should know me well enough to know that I'm planning something bigger and better….Several things in fact.
But we have progressed to fast zombie.
And we closed off the chapter with talk about contamination, enjoy that thought.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.
