Day 31. Dark Alexa Rises, and we all rejoice!

The God of the Graveyard is canon, the rest of the pantheon not so much.

All the good things belong to MonolithSoft.

It was only weeks of preparation that kept him from drawing his hidden weapon when the human raced toward him. He had expected to be challenged but not this early, and not by such a strange apparition. It was dressed in long flowing robes, almost like the gown worn by an initiate, with soft edging and a glowing spotlight hovering over its head. The human screamed and slapped its hands together. Danboon's jaws twitched, but he kept his hands loose at his sides.

"You. Look. AMAZING! Tell me the mask has animatronics, please tell me it does!" The human poked its left cheek. "Oh my god, the skin is so realistic. Nothing plastic-y at all. It does move, right?" Danboon realized what the alien wanted. He split his lips slightly, showing all six rows of teeth. The alien wailed again, then grabbed his wrist. "You are going to slay at the competition, and I am here for that. Time to take that skell-nut down a notch." The incomprehensible alien walked with him, pulling him through the East Gate of the enemy outpost.

Danboon had planned to enter the city anonymously and mingle among the humans. This was only supposed to be a reconnaissance mission. His stomach rebelled at the indignity. Only a single puny side arm had been allotted him, and he was under strict instructions by his Ganglion masters not to shed so much as one drop of blood from his opponents. The God of the Graveyard should strike him down for this blasphemy.

But first the greatest of the Marnuck pantheon would destroy this city, he was certain of it. Their observers had decided that this, an important human feast day, was the perfect time to infiltrate the colony. The day was a perversion of all that the God of the Graveyard represented, mixed with strands of worship to Definian shapeshifters and Nopon greed. The debauched festival might hide him, but the Great God would see and remember. Danboon hoped to witness the coming punishment, but hopefully once he was a safe distance from the city.

The human was chattering and Danboon reminded himself he should be collecting information. He attention was wasted by a flood of gibberish. "I am so sick of hearing about what the Outfitters are going to do, especially that Alexa. Blah blah blah, the secrecy is getting boring. I'm not impatient, oh no. I am already over it. It'll be some kind of stupid mini skell. Maybe one that looks like a toy train or a Frankenstein. Whatever. You, my friend, are going to knock her socks off, and I want front row seats." The gowned human grabbed a cup from a passing soldier. "Don't mind if I do."

"Get yer own beer, little cowpoke," said the stranger, trying to retrieve the red vessel. Its wide hat and fringed pants looked sturdy enough, but Danboon was not sure why the shirt was embroidered with so many flowers, nor what the gourd shaped weapon on its back represented.

"I'm the angel on your shoulder, telling you to share," said Danboon's guide. It took a deep drink, returned the cup, and crinkled its face at Danboon. "I'm Virgil, by the way. Come on, let me guide you down to the lower level. That mask must be hella restrictive on visuals."

Danboon was assaulted by strange sights as they made their way through the city. Nopon like none he had ever seen raced past, inky black instead of their normal pale colouring. When they paused under a street lamp, their bones shone a sickly green in the light. Other Nopon chased after them, wearing all manner of animal pelts and feathers. A few were fused together in an unspeakable chain of suffering, wriggling in a line, only their heads free from the monster that had swallowed them.

Perhaps the God of the Graveyard might not be unimpressed.

The crowds grew in number. Even the smallest Nopon child had become fearsome, threatening grown human soldiers until they were given tribute. The humans themselves were as brightly colored as the Nopon folk, laying aside their respectable grey and black uniforms. Tonight they were transformed into bright birds, or the spirits of the afterlife. Danboon was sure he saw the Mischief Twins in their signature patchwork cloaks, although he had not realized that humans knew the Pantheon that well.

"Won't you try some potion?" creaked a voice in a dark alley.

Tucked in the shadows, a wizened figure crouched over a cauldron. Steam poured over the edge of the black pot. Danboon stared in disbelief. "The Crone..." Danboon fumbled the sign of the Good Auntie, warding against this incarnation of the forgotten goddess returned to the world.

"Don't mind if I do," said the Virgil creature brightly, reaching out its hand greedily.

"Here you go, child," the aged vision said, handing both of them red cups. Dark eyes winked at Danboon from under a mass of frosted hair. "Psst," the Crone of the Bowl whispered, "if you want something harder, come back when Frye's on duty." It peered curiously at Danboon, still making the sign of the Bowl with his one free hand. "The Aunt gives comfort," it said carefully.

"That does not need to be deserved," responded Danboon without thinking.

"Oh my god, your voice even sound like a Marnuck's," Virgil shrieked, then slurped the drink hastily. "I am definitely coming back for the improved version," it said. "Alas, we gotta split. Need to make the contest before they close entries. Come on, beautiful," Virgil said to Danboon.

"I'll tag along," said the crone. It grabbed another celebrant, installed the victim at the potion station, and shambled alongside them. Between the two humans, Danboon was free to examine the city in greater detail. Noise and screams filled the air, distorted between the taller buildings. They passed a line of skells such as Danboon had never seen.

"Like the newer models?" the crone's avatar asked Danboon. Its eyes twinkled up at him. "That one's aquatic and that one has sonic weaponry and that one ... well, it's fueled by death itself. Clean energy." Danboon examined the webs of bones shielding the last one and could not help but shudder. Strange lights shone between every joint and darted along the weaponry. "We keep them powered up even in the city," the crone said proudly.

"You're such a riot," laughed Virgil. "You sound almost as proud of them as Alexa."

"My child does wonders," the crone said contentedly.

They left the cavorting throngs and headed for a more industrial area. Danboon did his best to view everything smoothly, so that the recording in his helmet would be most useful, but it was difficult. Giant scirpo swung down at them, trained to stop before attacking. The humans must have gained such animal handling skills from the Prone traitors. Fire and smoke blasted at them, with screams and wails of Nopon dancing around the bonfires. It was all a little much.

They reached a new crowd, one that was not circling but rather standing in loose attention. Waiting before them was an altar, decorated with grotesque orange heads that leered at the laughing audience. To one side Danboon recognized the elders of New Los Angeles, including the one the Marnuck called the Warning. It was wearing an antique set of armor, Wrothian in inspiration and all black, with a helmet that almost hid the scar that haunted many of a recruit's dreams. Danboon's eyes returned to the alien again and again, hypnotized by the danger. As a result, he was not certain how he and his escorts arrived at the very front of the crowd.

"I think it's just fine that you got the slot after her," Virgil was complaining. "It's probably better that way. After you show them, they won't even remember her."

Danboon looked up to the stage. A disembodied voice, sweet and cunning, shouted over the crowd. "Prepare to bow down to NLA's new conqueror, the one, the only, DARK ALEXA!" The stage boiled with smoke and from it rose a human. Danboon was not impressed, although the crowd responded wildly. The figure was smaller than Virgil, and it was dressed in normal battle attire, the only oddity being the cape that flowed around it.

"When I say skell, you say yes!" shouted the supposed threat. "Skell!"

"YES!" The response flowed from every throat, even Virgil's.

"Skell!" "YES!" "SKELL!" "YESSSSSSSS!" By the third repetition, Danboon could not help but join the clamor.

The conqueror praised them. "Yes, good. I gather strength!" Before Danboon's horrified eyes, she began to rise upward, twirling from the power dancing below her feet. The stage was covered in snapping blue and yellow flame. "Dark Alexa commands her creature to rise. RISE!" it screamed.

Beside the spectacle, a second form started to lift itself. Danboon was dazzled by the electric flames and the swirling smoke, but none of this hid the deadly creature that stood obedient next to its master. It was a perfect but tiny reincarnation of the most deadly mechanical tyrant in Noctilum, a sleeping giant that slaughtered all that disturbed its slumber. "Behold Go-rha, my obedient pet. Behold Dark Alexa and be afraid!"

Danboon was trying to assess the danger that this new weaponry offered. Go-rha was worthy of fear, but this version was puny. It was then that a new threat made itself known. The crone had unfolded itself to its full height, and Danboon realized that it was not some aged alien devotee to the only pacifist god of the Pantheon. It was a soldier that was almost as tall and broad as Danboon himself.

"Oops. Clumsy me," said the alien, and pushed Danboon into the altar.

xcxcxcxcxcxcxcxcxc

"Jeezy peet, Dougie, couldn't you have figured out a way to capture the Marnuck without wrecking my show?"

"I wasn't going to take a chance on starting a fight," said Doug, scratching his head, now free from the fright wig.

"You were just sure Nagi would get all the fun," Lin teased.

"Now, look. There were too many non-combatants, most of them none too sober. It seemed like the best idea was to electrocute the guy."

"My levitation cape is only a prototype," Alexa said defensively. "Of course it's going to have a few flaws."

"You fried him," giggled Lin.

"The caution tape around the stage was there for a reason," shot back Alexa. She continued to frown at Doug. "Couldn't you have done it in a way that little Go-rha didn't get damaged?"

"I'll donate the reward money towards the repair fund," Doug promised.

a/n: Yayyyyy, we did it. Shameless plug time! Dark Alexa was a story late in AU-gust 2023. Crone of the Bowl is a goddess that has shown up in a few stories, including one where Doug was saved by a believer, Apriltober 2021/29 and Apriltober 2022/14. Nagi showed up in the Marnuck's worst nightmares, Hourly Challenge/Cutscene.

Anyhow, that was fun and happy Halloween! Whooo hooo!