Grimmfall: Eclipse
I do not own Grimmfall, Gargoyles, OK K.O, Powerpuff Girls or any other franchises with characters or ideas that appear in this story.
A new threat emerges, heralded by Goliath's former love. As Point Prep's own Foxtail goes on the hunt, Sebben brings Melissa Hunter into the field to stop events from spiralling into chaos.
A/N: It has been pointed out that Egwardo's gargoyle name is apparently Tachi. I was unaware of this given my lack of familiarity with expanded Gargoyles lore. For the sake of consistency I'll keep it as 'Queens'.
Xxx
Chapter Five: Escape
The sundered hull of the His Wu plunged into the depths of the Atlantic, with those who had been lucky enough to be on or close to the exterior deck able to evacuate just in time to avoid being sucked down with it.
The same could not be said for six individuals presently trapped within the ship's hold, able to hear the groaning of metal as the pressure slowly began to build around them. Luckily they had been swift to react, taking shelter within the container modified to serve as an infirmary for the previous inhabitants.
One of those inhabitants was among their number, hacking and coughing between bouts of laughter. "You've lost!" He spat. "All of you! My father's will is done!"
"Sunrise can't come fast enough." Foxtail muttered, trying to contact the aircraft that were likely circling only a few hundred feet overhead.
"You're not gonna reach them." Lexington said, pressed against the crate's sealed hatch alongside Goliath and Brooklyn, acting as further shorting against the increasing pressure of the ocean depths. "We need another plan!"
"And fast!" Brooklyn added, grunting with effort. "Or when we turn to stone, this box is gonna get a whole lot heavier!"
"And when that happens, not even your stone forms will protect you from the inevitable." The Grim Gargoyle chuckled. "The kindest thing you can do is put your masters out of their misery before they are forced to endure the same without the benefit of dying in deep slumber."
Brooklyn bared his teeth towards the wounded gargoyle. "Maybe I'll save 'em from enduring your big mouth!" He threatened.
"Brooklyn!" Goliath growled. "Calm yourself. Anger will not help us find a way out of this."
"I hate to agree with that guy, Goliath…but I do't know how we can." Brooklyn exhaled. "We've got minute at best, maybe less before- whoa!" He yelped and dug his claws in to keep from being flung forward as the crate tilted, sliding along a surface and then plunging with the far end of the crate as the bottom. The wounded gargoyle and Foxtail fell to that end while Melissa, who so far had remained silent, clung to the side of the crate.
"We just slid out of the cargo hold." She realized. "We must have passed through a breach in the hull!"
"That does little to improve our situation." Foxtail rubbed her head as she climbed to her feet. "My ship has two submersible SAR units that could rescue us, but they'd need at least an hour to even reach our depth."
"Fox, if you make me say it I am going to seriously reconsider this alliance." Melissa sighed.
"Say what?" Foxtail asked incredulously before Melissa glowered down at her, forcing the fox Faunus to sigh in defeat. "I could do that, but I'd be more likely to rip this crate open!"
"Goldilocks problem?" Melissa asked. "Too much or too little? Never bothered to work on that, huh?"
"This crate may as well be tissue paper for me!" Foxtail protested.
"Could someone please explain what you two are talking about?" Brooklyn asked. "I'm workin' up a sweat up here!"
"My semblance is what we're talking about." Foxtail said. "I could…I say again: 'could' get us moving upwards, but between the pressure and…me, I could just as easily break it open and drown us all! And that's without you all turning into stone…" She trailed off as her eyes widened. "Wait. Your stone forms!"
"You have thought of something?" Goliath asked urgently, bracing himself as he felt water leaking through the hatch.
"The gravity dust anchors I gave you!" Foxtail called up "Do you still have them?!"
"Got 'em all!" Brooklyn nodded, visibly straining alongside Lexington. "Could you get to the plan?!"
"Melissa, get the gravity anchors!" Foxtail shouted.
Melissa climbed towards the gargoyles and leapt up to grab onto Goliath's arm. "Sorry, big guy." She muttered, climbing along him to grab all three anchors. "Got them!"
"Plant one on three of the walls!" Foxtail began to climb up. "I've got an extra I can slap on the fourth!"
The two women hurried to plant all four anchors on the walls of the container. Below, the Grim Gargoyle observed them with narrowed eyes. "What are you doing?" He demanded. "You cannot really think to escape!"
"Watch us!" Foxtail snapped, and activated all four anchors with the push of a button on her belt, causing them to emit a purple glow while the crate tilted again, becoming more level while water began to spill in faster, now sloshing up to ankle level. "Farren, can you still do what you did back in second year?"
"With the elevator in that dust mine shaft?" Melissa spread her arms to both sides. "What have you got in mind?"
"This crate is surrounded with a Grav-Dust field that's lowering its mass, but we're still being crushed down under too much water." Foxtail explained. "Expand the field as far as you can."
"Make the water lighter? But that would…" Melissa realized her old colleague's plan. "That's smart. Let's do it!"
Her aura flared as she began to reach out and feed it through all four of the Gravity Dust anchors.
"What's she doing?!" Lexington called out, scrambling to keep his footing as the water began to reach waist level for him.
"Farren can do more than a few extra tricks with her aura." Foxtail answered as an indigo glow filled the container's interior. "She can mix it with Dust for all kinds of party tricks."
The water suddenly stopped flowing groaning of the container's walls ceased. In fact the container now seemed to be holding still.
"What happened?" Brooklyn asked.
"Open the doors." Foxtail instructed.
"Say WHAT?!" Lexington yelped.
"Trust me! We only have a minute or two before we start sinking again!" Foxtail insisted.
Goliath grunted. "Do as she says." He turned and began to shift the bars holding the doors shut.
"We really trusting her?" Brooklyn asked even as he and Lexington helped.
"No, we're trusting Melissa, and she trusts Foxtail in this." Goliath replied before pushing the doors open. "How…"
The crate they were in was suspended within a large bubble that had pushed away the water surrounding it, creating an envelope of open space.
"Move it!" Foxtail pushed her way through. "We've got little time and even less air to waste!"
She leapt out through the doors…and then stopped in mid air before flipping over and diving beneath the crate.
"Did she just fly?!" Lexington shouted, leaning over the edge of the opening.
"Less talking, please." Melissa muttered, her arms quivering. "I feel like I'm literally lifting an ocean here. Probably because I am!"
"No…" The wounded Grim Gargoyle growled, pushing himself up. "No! This must not be allowed!" He lurched towards Melissa before the crate shifted, knocking him back and forcing everyone else to grab onto any handhold available to avoid falling out.
"We're…rising!" Lexington shouted. "Rising fast!"
"Hang on!" Goliath shouted before the bubble collapsed…revealing that they were now hovering above the surface of the ocean…with the sun rising over the horizon, just in time, turning all four gargoyles into stone.
Melissa collapsed to her knees with a heaving gasp. "Oh thank Glob…"
"Everyone alright in there?!" Foxtail shouted, holding up the crate with her bare hands as she hovered some fifty feet off the surface.
"Yeah, just…be careful not to tilt this thing too far." Melissa answered. "I really don't want to fish any of these guys out."
"That won't be a problem." Foxtail smirked, seeing the Gilded Heart passing underneath her. "Let's get our new friend a cozy cell of his own to finish healing up in. I'll have a lot of questions for him, come sundown."
Xxx
One day later…
"If her Semblance is that strong, why'd she even need those Powerpuff Girls on her side?" Brooklyn grumbled, occupying a bunk alongside Katana and Queens in a section of the residential cabins that had been dubbed 'Gargoyle Quarters'.
"Why wouldn't she want more powerhouses on her side?" Angela answered with a question of her own, sitting with Broadway (arm now fully healed after a day in hibernation) as he scarfed down some sloppy joes from the mess flat. "To someone like her, you're either an asset or an enemy."
"That leaves one to wonder which category we fit into when she imprisoned us and made your father think you were being tortured." Katana said, eyes darting repeatedly towards the cabin door. "I still loathe the idea of working with her."
"We all do." Lexington assured her from the bunk overhead. "But she wouldn't be the first enemy we've teamed up with."
"Nor would she be the first one who has remained an enemy afterwards." Hudson said, slouched within view of the small wall mounted TV monitor.
"Isn't the enemy of my enemy my friend?" Lexington defended, then frowned at the last word. "Well…maybe not friend."
"If memory serves, the Circle of Kings was never a very sound logic to go by." Hudson replied with a grunt as he brushed a clawed hand through his beard. "Its earliest form was based on the belief that any nation that you share a border with is your natural enemy, and that another nation that shares a border with your enemy but not with you would be your natural ally. Never mind that even if that enemy was destroyed, you'd be left sharing borders with that 'friend' of yours. What does that make them after that?"
"Foxtail might be going after Demona, but she's made it clear that she doesn't like or trust any Gargoyles." Brooklyn scowled at the floor between his feet. "Goliath says we work with her, then we work with her. But we don't trust her. The minute Demona is back in a cage, I bet Goliath will focus on getting us a new place to call home."
"Moving again." Broadway sighed after finishing his meal. "Thought we'd be done hiding a long time ago."
"It's all a moot point until we find out where Demona went." Brooklyn shook his head. "And the only lead is that one Grim Clan member. Let me tell you, I don't see him talking."
The mechanisms on their door shifted with aa light groan before it swung open to reveal Elisa. "He talked." She told them.
"…" Brooklyn held up one finger as Lexington opened his mouth. "Not. A word."
Xxx
In the brig area they had once occupied, Goliath and his clan were gathered in an observation room which let them see the Grim Garrgoyle strapped securely to a chair in the next room over. He had various cables affixed to his body, some even on his temples, and was breathing heavily with a sheen of sweat visibly glinting on his flesh.
"How much torture did it take to make him talk?" Hudson asked, arms crossed as he looked at this sorry sight with disapproval.
"None." Foxtail answered, leaning against the wall next to the one-way mirror separating them from the prisoner. "Like I demonstrated before: physical torture is the worst way to get solid information. All it would get me is deliberate disinformation or whatever he thinks would make the pain stop. No, for a true believer like this I needed a more…delicate approach." She gestured with her head to where Melissa was sitting against the back wall. "Ask her if you don't believe me. She's the one who did it."
The Clan turned to Melissa with expressions ranging from disbelief to wariness.
"…I can do a lot of things with aura." She disclosed. "It's a projection of the soul, and I…know how to tap into the soul through that projection. I found when I was younger that I could do a lot of tricks with my aura….but at Prep I found I could do a lot with other people's aura. I could make people heal faster, or feel a certain way. Him?" She shrugged. "I made him feel as loyal to me as he does to Demona. When I asked him where she'd gone, he was in no state of mind to even consider lying to me."
"This influence…is it permanent?" Goliath asked.
Melissa shook her head. "I could make it that way, but I chose not to. I don't like using it even when the situation calls for it, Goliath…believe me, I'm aware of just how much harm I could do if I used my semblance irresponsibly."
"Making Dust stronger, tapping into the soul itself…" Hudson muttered. "You're a lady of many surprises, lass. But you've shown yourself trustworthy with them."
"That means a lot, Hud." Melisssa got up with a sigh. "Demona's going to London."
"What does she and her master want there?" Goliath asked.
Foxtail was the one who answered him. "They want the Blood of Pan." As all eyes turned ack towards her they would see that the amused smirk she'd been wearing before was gone, replaced by a grimace. "The Greek God of Nature…and the Father of all Faunus and Mobians."
"The…what now?" Elisa asked, eyes wide. "I thought that was just a myth."
"So did Global Justice until Dr Director's people and mine collaborated on an expedition." Foxtail replied. "We were on the trail of one of Sammael's followers, not a Fallen but…a wannabe looking to get their foot in the door with an ancient weapon, one from the Connected Era. Given what we know about that epoch we didn't want to take the chance that he'd found their equivalent of a city-killer or worse."
"Was it worse?" Goliath pressed.
"Infinitely, at least for anyone hoping it was a weapon. Like me." Foxtail nodded. "It wasn't a bomb he found, and it was pure luck that we came to crash the party just as he found it. He'd found a tomb containing the remains of Pan himself, perfectly preserved and looking not a day over a hundred despite being there for fifty thousand years. We took him down and kept his cronies from getting the word out, secured the remains for our own research. Dr Director and I passed it back and forth for a while, less out of generosity and more as a reminder that we had the ability to play nice ever once in a while when the stakes were high enough. It served me better as a bargaining chip than a scientific find."
"How'd it end up in London then?" Brooklyn demanded.
"Simple. We were done with it. We'd had the top scientists of several different fields look over the remains, take samples, run their tests. They confirmed that Pan is indeed the oldest known Faunus…perhaps the first one to ever exist, and the paracausal cause of both Faunus and Mobians manifesting every time the Grimm crawled back out of their pools. He apparently spent a lot of time merry making, and the result has been that anyone with even a thimble of his blood had the potential to become one of the two species when the time came."
"Then…after all that time, that means literally any and every human has that same potential today." Elisa realized.
"Well said, detective." Foxtail nodded. "Fate would roll the dice to see who stays human. Other times, like the most recent manifestation…they had some outside help to kick start it. Spirits of nature, as the history books say. But no amount of spiritual aid would matter without that tiny droplet of dear old daddy Pan flowing through every single human, Faunus and Mobian today. While this was all interesting to know…it didn't provide any breakthroughs that we were interested in."
Foxtail folded her hands behind her waist and stepped to the middle of the one way mirror, looking through it at the trembling, almost sickly looking prisoner on the other side. "We staged a discovery by a civilian expedition headed by one Scrooge McDuck, and once he got bored with it for the same reasons that we did he sold it to the British to be put on display."
"What, they didn't have enough stolen artefacts?" Lexington asked with a huff.
"Aren't pretty much all artefacts in museums stolen?" Broadway scratched his head.
"Let's not open that can of worms." Melissa interceded. "So, Demona wants the Blood of Pan…why?"
"Just because we couldn't find a use for the commons ancestor of three species doesn't meant that she and her new boss won't." Foxtail replied. "In any case, I don't really care why. We know where they're going, and we know they haven't struck yet. That gives us something we've been sorely lacking: the advantage."
"How do you know for sure that they haven't just magicked it away?" Lexington asked, pointing to the prisoner. "For all we know they could have told him a lie!"
"They did, but the lie would have taken us to Pan's tomb itself to put us on a wild goose chase." Melissa explained. "He was really eager to be honest and upfront on that."
"And the lab where Pan's remains are being held is under heavy guard because the Satyra have been trying to snatch them ever since McDuck took possession of them." Foxtail added. "So the Brits have pulled out all the stops. Sullivan Ratigan, Clan Blake, the Black Knight Huntsmen and more. Even Big Ben himself has been taking breaks from the Justice Friends to watch over it for a shift, by personal request of the Royal Family no less."
"So if the lab had been hit, there would have been too much noise for you not to know it with all your resources." Elisa determined. "And they're just waiting for an opportunity where their odds look good."
"My thoughts precisely." Foxtail agreed. "Which is why we're flying to London immediately. I already paged my fastest transport to pick us up, and my people have been in talks with the US government to make our presence there sanctioned."
"Rubbing elbows with the President now? My, how you rose in the world." Melissa commented with a slight roll of her eyes.
"Yes…she and I…have an understanding." Foxtail said while averting her eyes.
Xxx
Several minutes ago
"I don't care what you have to do, just get the message to the highest level possible!" Foxtail commanded, her face visible on a screen to one Professor Sushine of POINT Prep.
"You got it, Foxtail!" Sunshine saluted sharply and turned around, leaving a confused Doctor Greyman as she opened up the nearest window, took a deep breath, leaned out and…
"MADAME PRESIDENT?!"
"Did-did you just shout at the president?!" Greyman asked incredulously. "Sun, even if she-"
Suddenly, a response came. "What do you want?!" A distant voice called back.
"FOXTAIL NEEDS TO GO TO LONDON! REAL HUSH-HUSH!" Sunshine shouted. "CAN YOU GET HER PERMISSION, PLEASE AND THANK YOU?!"
"Sure! It'll be delivered via paper airplane!" The President called back.
"Via paper- ouch!" Sunshine winced as her cloudy head was struck by a paper airplane. "Thank you!" She waved out the window and then held the paper airplane up triumphantly to her colleagues.
"…I'm not sure if I'm more angry that just happened or that it worked." Foxtail deadpanned.
Xxx
"Yep…we've got a reeeeeally strong rapport going." Foxtail nodded, lightly tugging at the collar of her jacket. "Now let's talk about literally anything else and never bring it up again."
"Suits me fine." Melissa shrugged. "I just hope this plane of yours is rated for carrying a bunch of gargoyle statues. Between crossing multiple timezones and the chance that the Grim Clan might make their move during the day means that we're probably going to need it."
Xxx
Accessing Archives…
Opening File: FOXTAIL – SEMBLANCE
Name: Fox Flight
Aura: Orange
Foxtail of P.O.I.N.T Prep Academy has long been secretive about her abilities, citing regular criticism of Huntsmen tournaments opening opportunities for the strengths and weaknesses of individual Huntsmen to be analyzed by potential enemies. As such, she has done her best to avoid explicitly revealing her Semblance's abilities or limits.
Fortunately, this paranoid streak did not extend to her own academy days. Melissa Farren, now Melissa Hunter, was happy to fill in any gaps in knowledge surrounding this topic.
Fox Flight is both straightforward and deceptive at the same time.
Flight: As the name implies, Foxtail is capable of generating inertialess flight much like Major Glory, the Powerpuff Girls, etc. Her top speed as of the last time Mrs Hunter was privy to her training was three times the speed of sound. While it is believed that her top speed would still not equal that of Major Glory or other flyers and speedsters, it cannot be underestimated.
Strength: Additionally, when invoked, her Semblance grants her heightened strength that has allowed her to disguise her Semblance purely as one of physical enhancement. Foxtail's latest record has her lifting fifty metric tons with one hand and moderate effort. It must be assumed that her upper limit has increased since then.
Speed: This ability is not as pronounced, but cannot be disregarded. When not in flight, Foxtail demonstrates a level of speed which was clocked in at approximately one hundred-fifty miles per hour. While it can be assumed that this limit has expanded since then, Mrs Hunter has divulged that Foxtail admitted freely that this ability appears to have a slower rate of enhancement compared to its other components.
Durability: While the average Huntsman is empowered by their Aura to withstand otherwise fatal damage, Foxtail possesses a unique advantage in this area. Rather than using her Aura as a shield and physical amplifier, she disengages it to use as fuel for her semblance's ability to amplify her physical resilience. As a result, Foxtail is not dependant on an Aura Shield and can theoretically withstand far greater punishment. As a trade off, prolonged use of this appears to drain her aura at a faster than average rate. It is best applied when immediately under attack, otherwise it serves only to burn through aura reserve. Foxtail has mastered control of this to the point of being able to both engage and disengage it at will. When applied accurately, it can be used to reduce a devastating strike to a negligible one in such a small window of time that the issue of aura consumption is irrelevant.
It should be noted that these abilities appear to be derived at least in part from those of Major Glory and previous holders of the American Spirit. However, while it can be implied that these individuals served as inspiration on a subconscious level, Foxtail has allegedly undergone experimental procedures aimed at enhancing her body's ability to produce and control aura. Mrs Hunter has shared what little she knew of them, mainly those she was personally involved in, and the implications are as intriguing as they are worrying.
If Foxtail has somehow enhanced her original semblance to put her in the same ballpark as someone of Major Glory's level, what else could she and her colleagues be working on behind closed doors?