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.
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Chapter Seven: The Perils of Clipshows
"Back before Point or Nevernest, I was from a…prestigious family. Not insanely rich or powerful like the Sanbans, the Fulbrights or the O'Reilly's, but…rich enough."
A young Melissa is shown in a family photo, her parents standing to either side of her with only their legs visible. As she visibly ages with each new photo, her innocent smile and warm gaze slowly wilt until her expression becomes blank around age twelve.
"You see, the Farrens were big in the days of early colonization. But we were also one of the first…aggressors against the Faunus and Mobians. When that eventually cost us a lot of the family wealth and land, we only had two things to turn towards to keep ourselves useful: Huntsman work and marriage alliances. So being the only child meant that I had a lot riding on me."
Melissa was then depicted shifting between writing and reading from large textbooks to standing in the middle of a sparring ground. Men in masks and wielding training staves surround her and begin to strike. She winces at the initial impacts even as her aura flares to protect her. Then one strikes her across the face and as she turns the scene shifts back to her laying in bed with a visible black eye, going to sleep only for the sun to rise quickly and lead to her day beginning again. Her parents appear distant and shadowed, more often than not leaving direct interactions to servants who lead Melissa along or serve her food.
When she is not studying or training, she is being forced through etiquette lessons. Made to demonstrate proper posture and behaviour, she is visibly depressed whenever the slightest mistake leads to her parents shouting down at her, their words audibly muffled yet resembling dull thunderous roars in the background. Eventually she learns to stop reacting whenever this happens, and to stop flinching when struck during combat. Eventually she has apparently mastered these lessons and is now beating down the men sent to spar with her, doing so barehanded and leaving them strewn across the sparring ground behind her. The figures of her parents watch from on high, silent and judging as always.
"Made for a lonely childhood, which was why when I was accepted into Point I saw it as an escape."
Melissa, now appearing in her early teens, is shown in the Point Prep school uniform and standing among rows of new students. While the silhouettes of teachers cast long shadows over the audience, the visibly nervous Melissa feels something brush her leg. She looks down to see a tail moving back and forth anxiously, revealing a young Foxtail next to her, equally unnerved and trying to hide it.
"And for a time…it really was. I met my first real friend there, and by the time my parents found out and tried to do something about it I had even more friends in high places. Even threatening to disown me and cut me off didn't hurt me. They'd made it clear long before then that they only cared about me being two things: a figurehead and an incubator."
Melissa slowly warms up to Foxtail as they are shown attending classes together, as well as other activities alongside a slowly growing group of students. But when they all gather together for a photo, it is revealed that a copy was sent to her parents' scrolls. Her father crushes his in his hand while her mother shrieks and rages in the background. Laying on her bed in Point's dormitories, Melissa cringes as these shouts are filtered through her phone. She puts her face in her hands and trembles while Foxtail puts a sympathetic hand on her shoulder and makes to leave, only for Melissa's hand to shoot out and grasp her wrist.
Surprised, Foxtail looks back to see Melissa with a tear streaked face and her scroll held up to her face. She shouts something into it and then smashes it against the floor before throwing herself against Foxtail in a hug which the Faunus reciprocates. When Melissa stands in a court room later, Foxtail is watching from the audience as she is given full emancipation from her parents, who don't even look her way as she leaves with a bright smile on her face. Then in the Dean's office, a man in a sleek dark suit stands next to the desk while motioning to a set of paperwork placed before Melissa.
Judging by the text, it is clearly a contract which she signs. The scene shifts to her holding a pay cheque and exchanging a high five with Foxtail.
"And the biggest victory I had in those days was when my Semblance came through. Aura Sight. Most people hear it and think it's nothing, just basic aura manipulation with a few extra tricks. But Point helped me realize I could do a lot more with it. I could do things with Aura that most others couldn't. A lot of people forget that Major Glory's powers are from aura as well, and with the ability to see it…came the ability to do things that blew my mind. It was at the end of my first year there…that I found my most dangerous ability: Dust Forging."
Melissa is shown gripping a pair of handles and focusing her Aura down through a set of pylons , along a length of cable and into a pedestal close by where twin beams of Aura slam down into a formless mass that shifts in size and colour. She visibly strains to keep this up, but when a gloved hand is raised she is able to cut off the flow and maintain her footing. Foxtail nonetheless support and helps her to walk over to the pedestal where they behold a solid sheet of freshly forged Dust.
"I don't know how it works exactly, even to this day. But there'd always been a connection between Aura and Dust. My semblance tapped into that connection and let me make it in small amounts. But small amounts of dust produced multiple times quickly made POINT realize it had an unlimited supply. So once a day I was blasting out power into newer models of the Dust Forge, testing out how to make different types of Dust in larger amounts…and finding a few new ones along the way."
This scene repeats, with the machine that Melissa feeds her Aura into becoming larger and more complex, then more streamlined as an ideal design is reached. The result is that instead of one small slab of Dust a foot across, the machine begins to produce progressively bigger amounts until the final model churns out a block six feet long and across and two feet deep. Sometimes the Dust type causes a reaction, like causing a fire or unleashing arcs of lightning. But overall the procedure becomes easier and more fruitful.
"I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the Gravity Dust I made went into things like that ridiculous carrier. But all good things come to an end, and for me it was when I found a type of Dust that never should have existed. In fact, we found out that it literally couldn't be naturally produced. A purely synthetic variant that needed me to discover it…and it nearly killed me."
Melissa is manning the Dust Forge as usual, but suddenly the flow of power increases and she appears visibly alarmed. She tries to release the handles but apparently cannot. Foxtail watches in shock as Melissa's aura is being drawn into something at the heart of the Forge. Nearby, other guards and staff begin to slowly collapse as their own Auras are shown being drawn in as well.
Foxtail shudders and holds her hand up, watching as her own Aura begins to get sucked away by what has been created. Straining, she moves towards Melissa and is able to grasp the cable linking her to the Forge. Clenching her teeth, she pulls her hands apart and snaps the cable after some struggle, bringing darkness to the room.
Then, as lights flicker back on, Foxtail looks up to see that Melissa has collapsed to the floor. She gathers her friend up and looked towards the Forge, which now has a transparent cube lowered around it. Men in hazard suits enter and begin to scan the area while victims of this event are tended to.
Sitting in the Forge, at a size so small that it requires a microscope to be seen…is a single speck of black in the shape of a sphere. Light bends around it, seemingly drawn in towards it, and the nearest lights continue to flicker while electrical devices outright lose power in proximity to this sphere.
"At first we thought it was Black Dust. It's not common, but it's been recorded. Black Dust drains energy, but never without being triggered somehow, like with other Dust types. This…this was something worse. The moment I'd made a grain of it, it started sucking up energy from everything. Electronics, Aura…everything. They called it Void Dust, and once they found out how to regulate its effects they had me make more of it. I still had to keep it small, but after a few months into my second year they had enough of a stockpile that the Dean forced them to stop making me forge it."
A single speck of Void Dust became a small clump. Then a single solid brick contained within several layers of metal and glass. As Melissa produced the last specimen she is shown looking pale and clammy. The Dean is shown arguing with the same dark suited man from before, aggressively gesturing before pointing at the floor between them and shaking his head. Melissa is laying in a hospital bed with her friends around her, the scene shifting to reflect how this scene was repeated multiple times.
"That was all they needed. They'd learned a lot about Dust Forging from me. They didn't need me to make it anymore. Their new process was a lot less efficient, but being able to make any kind of Dust they wanted without buying it was apparently too tempting to let that get in the way. I was off the hook and able to live my life again. The rest of second year went by just fine, and going into the third…on a whim, I got permission to take part in an exchange program. One month in each of the other Huntsmen academies."
Melissa is shown with a backpack fully stocked, giving Fox a hug before hurrying out of their dorm and POINT Prep itself to a waiting airship.
Then she is shown at Jade Academy, practicing Kung Fu with Xiaolin apprentices.
At Yamanouchi Academy, she learns the tenets of Bushido and refined her unarmed fighting style.
At Skyfall, her early childhood lessons of etiquette allow her to adapt to the sharply dressed and even sharper witted student body, taking quickly to both their methods as well as their ideology.
In Outer Haven, she learns new applications for her Semblance both on and off the battlefield.
In Lucha Academy, where she has donned a mask, she grapples with a much larger fighter and manages to make him lose balance, allowing Melissa to pin him to the floor before the match is called.
"And at the end of that six month journey…I came to Nevernest. And there I met four people who would change my life forever."
Standing before Nevernest Academy, Melissa feels a sense of awe that even all of the other Academies combined could not instill in her. Swallowing, she approaches the front entrance…
"…body get in OUR WAY!"
CRASH!
Melissa leapt back in shock as a large shape crashed down onto the campus grounds ahead of her, creating a miniature crate. That shape, revealed to be a large…robotic bear, roared as it reared up on its hind legs. She spied several figures clinging to the back of the automaton as it thrashed about, trying to dislodge them.
One of them, with a mess of red hair and sun glasses, dug a rapier into the outer shell and hung on for dear life. "Carlos, you moron!" He shouted. "We're back at the campus!"
A large wolf Faunus gripping both of the bear's 'ears' yelped as he was almost flung off by its head swinging back and forth. "Aw man, not more detention!"
An even larger human cackled as he was pinned between the bear's jaws, holding it open through sheer physical might. "AHAHAHAHA! Is that best you've got, puny cub!? You could not chew food fit for bird-babies!"
And finally, clinging to the bear's chest where some panelling had been ripped open was a dark haired young man. "Give me a break here, Kurt! This thing isn't exactly cooperating with me!" He shouted, both arms reaching down into the automaton's innards. "Aw screw it!"
"No-no-nononono don't screw it!" Kurt waved one hand frantically.
Melissa threw her arms up as the bear was suddenly immolated from the inside. The giant man was sent flying out of its mouth, laughing the whole way like he was on a joy ride. The wolf Faunus released the ears as jets of fire emerged from it, causing him to be launched off a split second later. And Kurt in the meantime actually kicked off of the bear under his own power.
"CARLOS YOU MOROOOOOON!" He shouted while the bear fell onto its back, now partially melted and its surroundings on fire.
Slowly rising to his feet amidst the inferno, Carlos wiped one hand across his forehead. "Phew! That was a close one. Good thing we got it before it could reach Sebben's office."
Taking notice of Melissa, he nodded. "Oh, hey, you the new transfer?" He smiled and stepped out of the molten heap he'd created. "Name's Carlos Hunter: student ambassador. Allow me to welcome you to Nevernest!"
"Yeah…not the best first impression. That month was the longest one of them all."
Melissa stepped out of her guest dorm only to leap back with a yelp as a full grown Beowulf barrelled through.
"Make a hole! Make a hole! Team RGCK's on this one!"
Suddenly Roberto came running through on all fours with Kurt perched on his back…with a harpoon in hand, poised to throw it. At their side, seemingly flying on jets of fire, was Carlos who was waving his arms and shouting warnings to students ahead.
Next, Melissa was enjoying a meal out at a diner only for a van to crash through the front wall. She was unharmed, but her meal was sent flying all over her face.
A Satyra agent groaned as he slumped through the smashed wind shield.
"Thought you'd lost me, did yah!?" Carlos clambered into view next and looked down the front of the destroyed truck. "You okay down there, Gregor?"
A muscled fist punched out through the front grill before forming a thumbs up sign. "I am optimal, my immolation-prone friend!"
"It felt like most of the problems around there involved that one team. But try as I might to avoid them, I ended up getting drawn in."
Melissa had been trying to mind her own business until she'd heard a cry for help. This led her to discovering a Mobian girl being forced into a van. While protocol dictated that she alert authorities or a licensed Huntress, she never had the chance to try for either as the van was stopped quickly by the giant form of Gregor Brobdith. He held the van in place and lifted it up, glaring with an uncharacteristic ferocity through the wind shield.
"You will be releasing little girl. Or you will be starting job as my new punching bags." He growled while Roberto, Kurt and Carlos dropped down into view behind him, weapons in hand.
One of the kidnappers actually leapt out with the Mobian, bound and gagged in his grasp with a gun pressed to her head. "Get back! Or the animal gets it!"
"You don't want to try that with us." Kurt warned with a shake of his head. "Let her go and we'll let you and your pals have a head start on the police."
"Hurt her," Roberto added with his teeth bared, "and I'll follow you to the ends of the world."
"Hurt her," Gregor echoed his team leader while his hands balled into fists so tightly that his flesh creaked, "and I crush your bones into dust."
Melissa, keeping just out of sight, swallowed and the name to a moment of realization. She used her semblance to interact with the kidnapper's untapped aura. Taking a breath and praying to Glob, she clenched her fist and then uncurled one finger. Unbeknownst to this, the kidnapper suddenly engaged the safety on his pistol- something which Gregor picked up on thanks to his position. Letting out a growl, he advanced, and a single 'click' was followed by a confused reaction from the kidnapper before Gregor crushed his gun arm in one hand (thereby keeping his promise) and pulled the crying mobian girl to safety with the other, shielding her from the ensuing conflict with his body while his team mates subdued the entire crew.
Once police were on the scene, Kurt glanced towards where Melissa was standing amongst a crowd. She ducked her head and backed out of sight.
"Until one day…I pretty much became the fifth member of the team."
Suddenly instead of being witness to RGCK's shenanigans, Melissa was in the thick of it. She began to appear with them in detentions, or in the midst of fighting criminals or Grimm. At first she appeared annoyed or stressed out by this, but as time passed she began to enjoy her time with the team. She spent time with them outside of classes and missions: working with Kurt on researching occult lore in the library, helping to hold down a panicked Roberto as he was dragged into the infirmary with a sign clearly stating 'lice outbreak treatment' next to it, being spotted at the gym by Gregor and even entering a boxing ring with Carlos…who she beat numerous time until one day he managed to get her pinned…much to her despair, as the scene then shows her dancing with him at an academy dance, the consequence of her making a bet with Carlos that he would never beat her in the ring without aura.
"And that took a big chip out of my rep back at Point."
Foxtail rubbed her brow as she and Melissa spoke of scroll about the various incidents she'd gotten into, with Foxtail showing disapproval of RGCK…particularly Carlos after seeing pictures of him and Melissa on several dates.
"I knew I was supposed to be back in Point after one month there, but…I asked for an extension. Then another. Then another. Sebben vouched for me, so it was permitted. Before I knew I was set to stay at Nevernest until graduation exams. But…it wasn't just the team that made me stay. Fox and I were getting strained. She wanted me to come back, I wanted to stay."
Slowly the two friends began to talk less and less, and when they did it was tense and then became shouting until finally they stopped more the occasional text.
"That changed when Point asked for me back for a couple weeks for a special project. Said that they needed me to help make it go through faster. A few days on Aura Forge duty to produce something they couldn't make enough of their own way. I didn't think anything of it…even when they told me it was Void Dust. I was just happy because it meant I could really talk with Fox again and try to clear the air between us."
Melissa manages to create Void Dust in larger amounts, both thanks to her heightened experience and a better Forge design. Between these scenes she and Foxtail are shown slowly getting close again, falling back into old routines even as other students look unfavourably at Melissa.
"Then the day came that they unveiled the final product that I'd unknowingly been working on up to that point…Project Titanomachy."
Melissa, Foxtail and other team members stand around a car sized device with several officials in attendance. Foxtail is giving a presentation to them with visual aids from a screen.
"A Dust Field Emitter. Designed to take the effects of forms of Dust and project them over a large area. Similar to shields from Hardlight Dust, or thrusters from Gravity Dust. But this one was specially made for Void Dust. It could allow the generator to project an energy sapping field over a mile wide. They pitched it as a way for rogue huntsmen to be restrained without bloodshed, or to prevent certain semblances from compromising secured areas. Like if they could scry or move through walls. It all sounded so reasonable…until I saw that the US military was present."
Melissa sees several men in military dress uniforms among the audience and becomes wary.
"I tried to ignore it, but then I saw them speaking with Fox and the Dean in private. I couldn't imagine why they'd want Void Dust. They don't normally deal with rogue Huntsmen. At best it would be law enforcement who'd want this tech. So I found the full files for Project Titanomachy by using a trick I'd learned from RGCK."
She used her Aura Sight to find the access code to the Dean's office and logged onto his computer. There she found the full files and her eyes widened in horror.
"It wasn't just that the military was interested in Titanomachy. They'd funded it. Kickstarted it. Back around this time there were a lot of people in the government and military who were resentful over the Huntsmen Registration Act being torn down. They'd wanted Huntsmen under control, to become an asset to the United States, and they weren't taking defeat gracefully. Titanomachy was part of a build up by a number of politicians, industrial leaders and military personnel. They were secretly in support of a promising presidential candidate who would reinstitute an attempt at bringing Huntsmen in mainland America under control…by force. But they'd already determined that a full armed conflict wouldn't end favourably…which is why they wanted to eliminate the one person who could unite all Huntsmen against this initiative. And then do the same with anyone who could even potentially take his place."
She saw an image of Sebben designated as 'Target Alpha' as well as a number of others in the Huntsmen community labelled as secondary or tertiary targets. Melissa copied everything down to her Scroll, sent a copy to Carlos and hurried out of the office, only to come face to face with Foxtail and a number of security guards. Melissa, look ing like a deer in head lights, held her Scroll behind her and surrounded it in an aura field which she used to crush it into dust.
"I wasn't able to get out before they found me, but I did manage to send out a message and destroy the Void Dust supply before they subdued me. I didn't have much hope for getting out of prison after that, but…of course, Carlos and the others wouldn't wait for the wheels of justice to roll over me."
Locked into a restraint chair and looking pale and tired under a bright light, Melissa suddenly looked up as the door to her cell was smashed open to reveal Gregor, who broke her free of the chair in time for Carlos to move in and sweep her up into his arms. Hurrying out, Melissa could see Roberto and Kurt holding off numerous guards and even some Point trained hunters…including Foxtail who Kurt was keeping busy himself.
Their eyes locked one last time as Carlos shouted over his shoulder and began to hurry away with her.
Then their eyes met again as Melissa stood in Phil Ken Sebben's office, where the Headmaster and Mayor of Grimmfall was facing a delegation from Point, his expression hardened as the Point representative thrust a single accusatory digit towards Melissa only for Team RGCK to all shift to block this, glaring venomously at the man.
"Sebben didn't let it get that far. He had enough from what I'd sent him to bring a lot of them up on charges of treason, and with knowledge of Titanomachy now spread throughout the Huntsmen community…Point became a pariah to them all. It was agreed that if they left me alone, Sebben would make sure the truth didn't come out to the whole world. That a shadow organization in the US government was making a weapon that could be used to murder Huntsmen, the first and best defence against the Grimm. That they conspired to murder the most respected headmaster in the world all for the sake of control. They were beaten…but once more, I'd lost a home and a family."
Melissa was now curled up on a bed, once again saddened and alone.
"Luckily…I gained one I hadn't really seen until that point."
Cuts to Melissa waking up in bed to find Carlos sitting at her side, the rest of the team close by and holding presents as well as wearing colourful party hats. Melissa smiled and embraced Carlos before the scene shifted to a graduation ceremony at Nevernest, with Melissa included among the graduating class. Amidst the celebrations she and Carlos kissed, next they were shown getting an apartment together and going on adventures with the rest of RGCK for years.
Three children, a few decades some tragedies but an overall happy life later, Melissa would find an old picture of herself with Foxtail marking the day that they had celebrated her being emancipated from her parents. Melissa appeared saddened as she slowly set it back in the box she had been going through while moving into a full house with her new family.
"And the rest…well, I think we all know happily ever after is never just that."
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End of Chapter
