Once again, I have returned after god knows how long of me procrastinating writing this story. But I finally got another part out! Only took an all-nighter. Enjoy!
The portal door flashed as it opened. After a moment, Masha walked through into the Owl House's living room, Vee leading them.
"Wow, I can't believe I'm actually in another dimension!" Masha remarked, looking around, "I've alway fantasized about this day..."
"Well, your fantasy is finally here!" Vee grinned... Mentally smacking herself from how cheesy that sounded.
Masha chuckled, "Guess you could say that." they agreed as they continued to look around.
They noticed Luz and the Collector on the couch, both of them playing with marbles on the coffee table.
"Hey Luz! Good to see you again!" Masha greeted.
"Oh, hey Masha!" Luz waved from her spot on the couch.
They noticed the Collector. "Hey, who's this guy?" Masha asked, approaching the couch.
"Oh! This is the Collector! Collector, this is Masha... Vee's 'friend'." Luz introduced the star child (Vee giving Luz a quick 'shut it' look as she did.)
"He's sorta a god-like being... Kinda, in a way?" Vee added, with a bit of awkwardness in her tone as she did.
"Nice to meet you, human with cool hair!" The Collector smiled, waving.
"Well, nice to meet you too! You're pretty cute for a god-like being..." Masha remarked, smirking at the star child.
The Collector blushed a little, but smiled at the compliment.
"Hey, speaking of cute, where's that little Titan guy? His name was King, right?" Masha asked, curious.
"That's him!" The Collector smiled.
"But we haven't seen him this morning." Luz shrugged, "We figure he went somewhere with Eda and Lilith... Wherever they went."
"Which Raine followed them as well..." Vee added.
"Guess they got something planned today or something." The Collector guessed.
Luz shrugged in agreement, as Camila walked into the living room from the kitchen. She had her purse, and red swinging bat on her back.
"Oh good, Masha, you're here!" Camila noticed them with a smile.
"Hello Ms. Noceda!" Masha greeted, giving off a small wave.
"Alright! Shall we get going then?" Luz suggested, getting up from the couch. "Maybe we'll run into Eda and the others in town."
"Sounds good to me!" Vee agreed.
With that, they all walked (or floated in the Collector's case) out the front door of the Owl House, and began to walk towards where Bonesborough was... Though Luz still couldn't shake the feeling something felt off today.
"You aren't getting away with this... I hope you idiots know that." Eda snarled, having gotten more comfortable in her situation.
As comfortable as someone could get with their adopted son being held hostage mere feet from them, that is.
"Well, sees as if we've gotten away with it so far... Why stop the streak now?" The masked witch sneered, tapping the end of their crossbow mockingly against King's head.
"Ever heard of stopping while you're ahead?" Eda flatly replied to the rhetorical question.
This standoff had been going on for about thirty minutes now, and Eda had barely been told really anything about what the hell was going on and what these people even wanted in the first place.
All they had told her so far, was that they were waiting for their leader to arrive, and then they'd explain more. But Eda didn't really feel like waiting here for much longer while King was in danger of being executed in front of her.
So, she reasoned it was time to do something she hadn't gotten to do in a while: Spout random bullshit until her current enemy was distracted enough for her to make a move.
"What's with the metal mask?" Eda asked the witch, "Is it a crappy fashion statement or something?"
The masked witch seemed amused by her joke, and chuckled. "No, no... It's actually covering something a lot more ugly than the mask itself..." They replied.
"Oh, you got scars or something? Hm, I'd feel bad for you if you weren't currently threatening my son." Eda flatly remarked.
The masked witch sighed, "Well, you seem to be taking it rather well." they replied.
"Yeah, that's only because if I do flip out on you, you're gonna shoot him." Eda reasoned.
"Fair." The masked witch shrugged, "Let's change the subject. I know your name, but you don't know mine."
There was a moment of awkward silence, as Eda purposefully kept her mouth shut for as long as the masked witch would tolerate.
"Oh! Was that your way of trying to get me to ask what your name was? My bad, I'm horrible at social cues..." Eda snarked, tone full of sarcasm.
"My name's Brielle." The masked witch introduced herself, "Sergeant of the Mercenary Coven."
"Sorry, the fucking what now?" Eda blinked, taken aback by the title.
"Oh, that's right... You probably haven't heard about us, huh?" Brielle chuckled mockingly "Been rather quiet about our group's growth in the shadows for a while now."
"That, or I've just been drunk the entire time you've been growing." Eda flatly snarked.
Despite her comeback, Eda was still shocked about this new information. There was a new coven? And they wanted to take over the isles? Eda couldn't help but scoff to herself. Course they do, what else is new? Everyone wants to be in charge around here it seems. What she was most curious about though, was who wanted to be in charge this time...
"Based on what I've heard about you... That wouldn't surprise me." Brielle deadpanned.
"Oh yeah, make fun of my tendency to drink... You're only about the hundredth person who's done that." Eda replied, her tone laced with snarkiness.
"I might be the last if you give me one more sarcastic remark" Brielle threatened, shoving the crossbow closer to King once more.
Okay, this wasn't working. Eda knew she needed to speed this up somehow.
"This leader... They got something against me personally or something? Cuz I don't see any other reason why you'd be wasting your time with me..." Eda asked, deadpanning. "I don't know what's going on at this place... Heck, I barely know what's going on at my own house!"
"Oh, Kikimora has plenty to have against you... But you're not the main game she's after." Brielle replied.
"...Kikimora?" Eda murmured in shock, as if she hadn't heard the name in years. "What's that demented demon got to do with all this?"
"Well, she's the leader of the Coven, of course... And soon of the Isles as well." Brielle explained, holding the crossbow away from King as she talked. "We've been working over the last month or so to take advantage of the weakened state of the Isles... And as of today, we deemed ourselves prepared enough to topple this little council you've got going on, and take Bonesborough from your control."
Eda blinked a couple times as she took in the information... Before beginning to chuckle to herself a bit, which Brielle took notice of.
"Why are laughing?" She asked, seeming partway insulted by Eda's response as well as confused. "Are you not intimidated by our goal, or something?"
"That, and you just gave me an opening to take advantage of your dumb ass." Eda smirked, as she finished chuckling.
"What-" Brielle wasn't able to finish her sentence, as she felt her arm's flesh be torn up by a swipe of Eda's claw. She instinctively grabbed her new arm scar, dropping King
The Owl Lady grabbed her son, and recoiled back using her harpy wings as the other Mercenary Coven members attempted to attack her.
"Weh! Eda, I hope you have a plan or something!" King yelped as they flew back away from the swipes and magic blasts that barely grazed by them both.
"Not really! Just winging it! Pun completely intended!" Eda exclaimed, before managing to get through the door behind her, and flying out into the hall.
King shouted at a couple of the Merc Coven members, which knocked them back away from Eda.
She bumped into a couple of the walls, before realigning herself and zooming down the hall away from her pursuers.
"FIND HER DAMMIT! She's gotta be in here somewhere!" Brielle ordered the other mercenary coven members.
They all ran forward, splitting up to look for the fleeing Owl Lady and Titan. Brielle meanwhile scowled, holding her wound in pain.
"You! Call the others, tell them to start the assault positions early!" Brielle demanded, pointing at one of the members that was about to go as well.
Said member strayed behind, and pulled out a clearly weathered crow phone from their coat, beginning to speak into it...
"I'm just surprised they got this store up and running again already" Emira remarked, looking at one of the shelves for Black-root Coffee.
"Well, without the store, nobody could really get much else up and running, could they?" Alador pointed out, holding the leash to a walking cauldron with abomination goo dog legs.
They had gotten mostly everything they needed from the store already, but were having trouble looking for the last two things: Black-root Coffee and some exotic ingredients Alador needed for a makeshift fuel source for a machine that would help him create the arm for Eda.
Edric did a cartwheel as they all walked down the aisle, making it all the way across the aisle as he did.
"Okay, we get it! You're happy to be out of that cast." Emira rolled her eyes.
"YOU BET I AM! I've never been so thankful for my arms and legs in my life..." Edric exclaimed, leaping up out from the cartwheel.
Ever since Edric had been freed from the body cast he had been put in, he had made the most of his movement capabilities since then... Which had quickly gotten on his twin's nerves.
"I couldn't have guessed from you jumping on the bed all night and keeping me up..." Emira sarcastically remarked.
Edric sheepishly chuckled, while Amity spotted a familiar bag on a shelf."Aha! Found the coffee!" Amity declared, going over to get it. "Black-root brand!"
As Amity grabbed the coffee, she noticed something through the shelf gap. A couple of armored and cloaked witches were listening in on a weathered crow phone, nodding and saying something back... Before glancing behind them at where the aisle she was positioned in was, the two beginning to pull something out from each of their cloaks.
"What is-" Amity squinted... And yelped as a crossbow bolt stopped inches from her face, stopped by Emira using a box from the shopping cauldron to shield the impact.
"A crossbow bolt! It's a bolt fired from a crossbow!" Emira quickly answered Amity's rhetorical question, tossing the box aside and dragging her little sister to cover as more were fired towards them.
One of the witches decided to ditch the crossbow, and instead pulled out an Artificial magic blade, which glowed red. They sliced through the shelves until they reached the aisle the Blight family was in. The witch swung the blade at the closest target, which happened to be Edric.
He ducked from the first swipe, and managed to recoil away from the second swipe as well. The witch kicked at Edric's leg, which knocked him down. The witch began to swing for the young witch's chest.
"Oh heck no! I JUST got out of that body cast, I'm not going back!" Edric got up to avoid the third swipe, casting a smoke illusion to throw his attacker's vision off.
At this point, the other demons and witches in the store had noticed the fight, and either fled for safety, or ran to report the current attack.
Alador meanwhile rushed forward to deal with the witch that was still firing at where Emira and Amity were in cover. The witch noticed this, and turned to try and shoot him, but was too late as Alador managed to swat the crossbow out of their hand.
The witch casted a spell, and a burst of fire flew out from their hand towards Alador, who barely managed to duck to avoid being engulfed by it. He retaliated by conjuring a burst of abomination goo from a watch he was wearing, and swiping it at his attacker like a whip.
As the fight continued on, nobody noticed that the flame from the spell had caught fire to one of the shelves containing various volatile potions and ingredients...
Waiting for Eda to come back would have been fine if that was all Raine and Lilith had to do... But unfortunately for the former, listening to Hooty's stories while they waited was harder to do than it was to say.
"...And then Luz grabbed me by the neck, and began to wring me out to try and get the mouse out..." Hooty rambled on, happy to have the (somewhat forced) attention on him.
"She's taking too long..." Raine murmured, ignoring Hooty's story. "How long could it possibly take to drop King off, and then fly back?"
"You saw how adamant King was in wanting to come along... Edalyn probably is still trying to get him off her arm or something." Lilith reasoned. "Also, please don't interrupt Hootsifer in the middle of his story."
"This story has lasted over thirty minutes... With no pauses." Raine deadpanned.
"...Then after she got the mouse out, she scolded me for a few minutes, I wasn't really listening though. I was mainly wondering more about-"
Hooty's story was cut off when a loud blast was heard in the distance, the ground even shaking slightly from the force of it.
"What in Titan's name was that?!" Raine exclaimed, regaining their footing.
Lilith noticed a pillar of smoke rising from across the town. "Look! There must have been an explosion over there!" She deduced.
"Do you think it was an accident?" Raine questioned, getting Fiddlesticks out.
"For some reason... I somehow doubt it." Lilith murmured, "Come on, let's go investigate!"
Raine got on Fiddlesticks. Meanwhile Lilith, in her rush, forgoed using Hooty as a helicopter and instead turned into her raven form to fly.
...Unfortunately unbeknownst to her, this had consequences elsewhere.
Eda had made it all across the council building with King in tow. She flew into one of the larger chambers, and spotted a large open window near the ceiling.
"Aha! Our way outta here!" Eda grinned as she spotted it.
She flew up towards the window, ready to fly out and be free to go and warn everyone else... When she suddenly turned back into her normal form, and crashed to the floor with King.
"Weh?! What happened?! Why'd you change back NOW?!" King exclaimed, shocked by Eda's change of form.
"I don't know I-" Eda paused mid sentence, looking at a nearby picture on the wall... Which happened to be of her older sister.
"...Titan fucking dammit, Lily." Eda deadpanned, realizing what had happened.
I completely support the headcanon MoringMark created that Eda and Lilith cannot be in their Harpy forms at the same time, so stuff like that ending happens sometimes. :)
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