Stralia - Blinding Lights, Powerful Nights
#6 of Stralia
Stralia - Blinding lights, Powerful Nights ~~SnowDragon
With a huge delay I apologise for, this is Chapter Six of Stralia. Again, I really am sorry for the time it took me to assemble this, lot of things have been happening. First and foremost, I damaged by finger with a saw while working on the mechsuit quite badly, and I fear I shall never be able to move it properly again, and given this was my left index, an important typing finger, I had to basically relearn how to type all over again, which sucks. I've picked it all up again, but I'll never be quite as fast I fear. Secondly, while trying to relearn it all, I got myself a 3DS finally after being fed up of being behind the curve and Pokemon Y, which sapped a bit of my time as well. Now, for the good news, is this is the month of November, means NaNoWriMo, 1667 words required per day to make 50,000 in a month, which should complete this story off nicely. Means aside from my loyal, most valued readers, there's a support group out there kicking my arse to get moving quicker. So...
Without further ado, I present Stralia - Blinding Lights, Powerful Nights. As always, enjoy!
Writing Time: Unknown, Lost track. Length: Digital Copy Only; 8.1 A4 pages Soundtrack: No idea, lost track of the millions of songs I played.
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The most effective weapon against Dragons appeared to be the tactical laser of the US Air Force. ~End of the World as we knew it, Documentary of the Collision War. ---
It wasn't until much later that night, when the falcon turned drake felt the confidence in herself, her control and what she could hear transmitted through the water that she felt safe enough to emerge from her hiding spot at the bottom of the deep pond. It wasn't until much later after that moment or recognition that she finally decided to do so, that scaled muzzle peeking from the surface of the water, broken as it was by the water drops pounding down upon it. The water having long since cleansed any record of what she had done from living memory, the waters holding much more blood than the stain upon the blade that ended her tailtip, many of it directly the cause of herself and her desire, her need to feed upon the fish and other lifeforms that dwelled within her domain, her territory. Blurred and fractured were her memories since her tail and claws had tasted blood, since she had taken the lives of two souls who had come charging through that smoke, slashing, screaming, chanting. Like the nightmares while she slept, known to be real only by the fact she could act, act with a slash of her tail and slap of her paw, rending the foes aside no matter the damage they caused earlier, no matter their power. With muzzle partway submerged and eyes sitting just above the shaking waterline with every drip and drop that struck it, a low rumble slipped from her lips, alarmed by the sound yet proud of her kill. They had sought to claim her territory and she had struck them down as easily as she preyed upon the fish here in her pond. Two strings of thought raced in her mind, the falcon, Senia... and the magically active dragon Senia. One was logic and educated thoughts and the other was base instinct of a creature no one bar themselves were ever supposed to understand, nor hear.
Closing those eyes, she swept her paws rearward to propel herself forwards towards the edge. Enough time had passed, and there were undoubtably people looking for her at her friend's demand given the situation they had so recently been involved in despite their best attempts to avoid the war and all other elements of it. Logic and curiousity won out in the end over base instincts and she emerged from the water soaked and dripping and somehow managing to hold the air of a royal apex predator. Must have been the lack of fur and feathers to speak of, that and that something, aside from the painfully obivous fact that a bunch of mercenaries actually opened fire in the middle of a crowded street surrounded by civilians and perhaps more troubling, they lost one of their armoured vehicles to a massive explosion. Vauge visions of a helicopter, no they were clear, she just hadn't been able to see it properly through the smoke, no markings, despite her keen eyes, too many other things to concentrate on. Thoughts momentarily paused as she focused upon the power to change her form back to that of feathers and beak and giving herself a once over to check she was all in one piece, and much to her surprise she was indeed. Sarah's family car must have shielded her from everything but the shockwave of the blast because she didn't have a knick upon her fair form. Matter at hand, as she paced for the edge of the forest, back into sight, back where the full force of the rain could crash down upon her body in an instant instead of being mostly covered and protected by the tree foilage above. She had killed two people, and she hardly doubted that they would be mistaken for AlpDynOrg enemies, which meant that law enforcement would be looking for... what would they be looking for, she reasoned, something carrying a claymore made out of... what was the blade of her tailtip made out of? She'd always thought of it as ceramonial or a display feature of the creature rather than an actual weapon, but instinct controlled her actions this night, which meant that it had been, and always would be a weapon to her form... Vemon, however, that natural toxin she knew she had from her study of the subject, might be another matter.
With the treecover breaking, a massive, billowing pillar of smoke from where she had run from, orangey-red at the bottom, a massive fire the cause of the thick smoke rushing high into the air, seen from miles, larger than she had ever seen. Certainly larger than she thought was possible for something as small as that armoured vehicle, something much more flammable had gone up then? Was that even possible that something could be more likely to burst into flames than a metal box packed to the brim with ammunition and fuel? A pair of Civil Pacification Unit tanks rumbled past at speed she'd never seen them do before, rushing without a doubt towards the site of the firefight, road lit up by a single forward headlight and multiple reds and blues all over. Reality of the real world, a war in the streets, police provided by the military in such deadly, indestructable war machines, so far removed from the safety of her lake, so far removed from... Despite being fully awake at this very moment, she felt no more safe here than she did in her dreams, more so and less so when she stopped to measure up both sides of the arguement. At least she could move here, but nothing was really trying to kill her inside of her own mind! There she stood, upon the concrete footpath, staring up at the smoke blankly as it all set in, rapidly and brightly flashing multicoloured lights flashing in the air from several different spots, helicopters and aircraft circling like vultures, just waiting for their kill. She'd never seen the fighting of the Collision war first hand, much less having been in the thick of it, it was nightmarish, the world had truely gone mad. Such a massive sign of the mercenary coporation's power and effectiveness smashed into pieces like it was nothing more than a sheet of paper trying to stand against the tearing force of her hands, men with hopes and dreams, families and children, like her without being like her and that gave her the right to take them out of existance. They were trying to attack her, but she couldn't be sure, and even if she could be, what right did she have to live over them? Basic logic in light of the situation said her power but...
A bright, and very large white light shone down upon her, blinding her sensitive eyes and out of reflex she lifted a hand to block it, trying to see what the offending device was, pupils shifting, moving to lock to the outline, blurred outline of a vehicle, the path of light only disrupted by the powerful rainfall pelting her and the street surrounding. Opening her mouth to shout a demand for it to be turned off lest it burn her eyes and flesh, it went out with a definite 'clunk!' leaving those orbs to adjust to the sight of two humans, one a woman, both in uniform... camouflage... sitting insome form of, those large vehicle, side marked with the... Civil Pacifcation Officers, in their patrolling armoured cars, one speaking into a radio, bless her rapidly attuning eyes and sharp vision. Still she stood blankly, arm lowered out of reflex now that the shine was gone and she could see once more, torn between looking at them, so dangerously stopped in the middle of the road with only it's brake lights on before the lights on the rear lit up, red and blue flashing in all sorts of deep, amazing patterns lighting up the soaked tarmac behind it. Both stepped out of the vehicle, the far side reaching for his weapon... she recoiled, he relaxed. The female spoke, a quite but firm voice, trained, just as careless for the rain as she was. "Senia?" his partner rounded the vehicle from the front, pulling a plastic sheet from something on his belt, holding it up to the light, waterproofed as it was, it clearly wasn't glow in the dark. He spoke next when the falcon wasn't forthcoming with an answer, her pulmaged head, certainly a mess and rainslicked turning to stare at him with those balefilled yellow eyes.
"Definately her. It's over now, Senia," Oh good, the milita was here to arrest her for murder and being... who knew, someone capable of turning into a dragon, mankind's greatest fear since the invention of their biological weapons. She partway turned, surprised to realise just how disconnected she felt from her thoughts and body, sluggish in a way she had never felt before, turning to run but nearly falling over, saved over by the quick and strong hands of the Officer, gripping through those long brown feathers of her shoulders to the flesh beneath, using a careful grip not to harm her at the same time, not that she was sure she would have noticed. Her partner, resumed with a new sentence, a little more urgent than before. "We need a bus?"
"Shock, pretty bad. Call in, we'll take her ourselves," the female replied offically, more or less dragging the falcon back to their car given her less than able state to cooperate properly, no matter how much or how little she wanted to go with them, the wet tarmac definatly making the Officer's job easier. The male had already turned back to the vehicle, beginning a rapid fire conversation between the two souls in uniform to a disembodied voice she couldn't identify the signal of... radio, maybe? Definately radio, what all officals used. "She's freezing, 'heck that's cold."
"Central, Papa-Uniform-Five-Nine-Zero, you can call off that search for our missing woman, we found the girl. Transferring to Reader State, so switching channels." A short reply as the feathered girl was lifted, gently, firmly up into the backseat of the vehicle, the seats comfortable... or maybe that was her lack of connection between body and mind. Her head traced slowly towards the uniformed woman who climbed in the back, pulling the seatbelt over her shoulder and chest, clipping it in place with a definitive 'click!'. "Reader E-D, C-P-U Patrol with casuality on board..." Pauses while he spoke as the vehicle revved up loudly, powerfully, a siren added to the background and more flashing red and blue and white lights, barely able to resist inertia as it rocked her against the upholstery, something being draped over, her messily kept head turning, a jumper... the Officer's waterproofed jacket, like a blanket, a uniformed blanket, a slow blink upwards, into the hazel eyes of the much older woman. "Uh, confirmed, we'll be bringing her in direct through the front door, uh, roger, standby."
She started speaking, those beady yellow eyes of the falcon's drifting upwards to the roof and structure beams that joined it to the bottom, the loud, rumbling engine propelling it forwards drawing huge swarths of darkness across it's form before they were banished by more light, coloured flashes and patterns. She didn't feel safe, she had to... reaching for the doorhandle, stopped by the soft, firm grasp of the woman, the words the older, uniformed woman spoke repeated in shortened forms by the driver as he sped through traffic and the lights that governed them. "Subject was missing, presumably exposed to the elements for nine hours minimum, possible hypotherma and is in shock. Semi-responsive to stimuli... No, we can't see any injury at this time.... yeah, copy. We'll be there shortly." Then a pause, a quick look over his shoulder, right into her eyes as they drifted. "How's she doing?"
"Carrying one of our blades in a concealed holster," the female Officer started, and her eeys traced up to her head, followed by the rest of her head... how had she known she was carrying that traditional non-traditional weapon? Again the door, only to be firmly, carefully held back "Hey, easy Senia, we're almost there. It's nothing bad, alright? She's there, only partial- 'uup, we're losing her." The last half had been directed at her partner in response but her mind hadn't really been listening nor did it really care as her mind drifted like her head and she slumped, eyes seeing two things, the road ahead of her and the rapidly growing sight of the state hospital and the dark room, pitch and solid, inpenetratable black with a single lone source of light in the centre, a barstool with the golden locked box she had found in the submerged wrecked castle. Imagery she was familar with and yet... A slow step forward into the darkness from the darkness, towards the golden object that glimmered in the unnatural light. Shapes, jagged edged shapes cracking from the corners of her vision with every step. When she stopped, they were stopped too, stilled as if they required her movement to shift themselves, to entrap and destroy her mind before she unlock the secrets of that box, whatever it was hidden within. A screech of tires upon suddenly dry pavement, doors opening, things and belts unclicking. Warm jacket-blanket shifting, gravity and ground falling away as she was lifted, those yellow orbs fluttering at the red and blue and white patterned flashes shining everywhere, and the general murmur, the silent whipsers of those people she couldn't see. Leaping at the box before the darkness of shapes could react. Hand touching to it's surface, gripping it, forcing the key, turning the lock. Body sinking into some sort of soft matress, stretcher, calls for an object, heart rate. A sharp pinch and then, merciful, calm, sleep. Mind too exhausted to fight back.
Bright lights, banishing any hope of the darkness where all around when she awoke, dry, warm... safe, though the reason for that wasn't exctly clear. A plain white ceiling, bright white lights bearing down upon her from evenly spaced slits in the roof, not a single piece of detail to give her some idea what she was doing... well, here. With palms pressed to the soft surface she was sunk into, she lifted up her weight, sitting upright with a soft rustle of blankets as they slipped down her form, thakfully clothed, but not in the same things she was wearing earlier. A room, a small room, computer monitors about, most of them off and... A ward number? She, Senia, was in a hospital, but not just in a hospital, but laying in a bed in hospital. No windows so she couldn't tell the time, her yellow orbs doing a quick survey of the room, spotting Qui's form in one of the three chairs that sat along the wall, slumped over with a book resting precariously in his lap from where it had fell when he lost his valiant fight against sleep, it took a powerful need for Qui to read a book voluntarily of his own free will, he must have been worried... she furrowed her brow, wishing she hadn't been the cause of it when she knew she had been. As light as the covers had been, and as soft as the bedding was, she had barely made a sound when she had risen to glance over the room, thus keeping him asleep and blissfully unaware, which would keep him from adding any more worried to what he had already expierenced. Shuffling back upon the bed, resting her back against the headboard and emitting a soft exhaled sigh, correcting her headfeathers with a stroke of her hand, blinking rather suddenly, something amis, at least it felt like it. She repeated the act, slower this time, something was distinctly different as the memories of her muscles remembered it, and she repated it a third time to be a hundred percent sure, as if to obessively ensure her headtop was well maintained and socially acceptable.
Less weight, not as much effort to make the move with her feathered arm. Well, she could see the feathers on her arm, the silvery edges around the lush brown colour reflecting the light softly to the bedsheets below, her coat was missing, not that she remembered taking it off... A more pressing topic than what her muscles remembered, what her mind remembered. Coming from the lake, changing... heading for the street, for her home to collapse into bed and forget the events of the night, forget the darkness and the play of her claw.- She shook her head, firmly, making a mess of the headfeathers she quickly corrected, resuming the previous train of thought. Clearly by her current location, and situation; that was important to note, she hadn't made it home... or she had and something had prompted her arrival here, as a patient, and not under guard, she had her arms and legs unrestrained, a good sign no one had figured out what she had done just yet. No... a blinding flash of light that had her eyes cringe in mere memory, the Civil Pacification Officers- Her blade, that was missing. A quick slap-check to the sheath confirmed it, no definite metal 'twine' that sounded when the blade was bounced off the metal loopholes in the sheath's design. She never slept with it on her person, too dangerous, but always in the same place, underneath... her... pillow. A stupid thought, but she checked anyway and much to her surprise, she found it, hand wrapping around the grip firmly, silver blade withdrawn just as smoothly, carefully as ever, only with something extra, a tiny note attached to it, one of those sticky backed yellow sheets of paper the humans were very fond of using when one needed to pass a message to someone who wasn't available at the time (as if they didn't have enough ways of doing just that, faster than the paper could ever provide, if what she had seen in the past was anything to go by). Rough handwriting, black inked featherless plastic pen, as if written without a solid backing, or an unstable one, like a book held in one's hand.
'I won't tell anyone, don't worry.' and a signature she could make out, 'Katherine Watson'. A short blink, mind picking up details and interconnecting them, details she didn't quite remember clearly. Sergeant Watson, Civil Pacification Unit, that's what the namebadge said. The military-esqe police patrol that had found her after she had been missing for... who knows how long it took for her friends to realise she was actually missing and call up the search. Folding the note once and slipping it into a pocket on her person and sheathing the blade safely away... well, as safe as could be considering she had no coat with which to conceal it, one would have to be blind now to notice she was armed like she was even with traditions set aside. One walked a fine line when you combined Erildisan traditions with Human equipment like she did. But with that completed, she found herself in a curious situation she had hoped to never had expirenced, but now that she was in the middle of it, she wished she'd given the situation some thought because, well, what was she supposed to do now that she was awake? The bed was entirely comfortable, much more so than anything she'd slept in previously, including her own, but the covers were thin, and sat too lightly upon her wings, not that there was enough room to fan them out in the first place, another problem. but, having said all that, she had been taken here for a specific reason, even if she didn't know what that was, so what was she supposed to do? Sit here and wait, or get up and ask someone just what on the Twin Planes she was doing here? Qui was sleeping, he probably needed it by the looks of it, and the tettering of his book seemed to imply that most any movement would bring it toppling to the floor with an astounding sounding crash in the general quiteness of the hospital.
Decided, she lifted a hand and slipped the covers off, noting no real difference whatsoever in tempurature like she expected, well maintained climate control, first step for a sterile enviroment, and a comfortable one at that. Turning and slipping her legs off the bed, footsteps alerted her, head lifting and turning from the single toned blue floor made of some kind of lightly reflective plastic material to the doorway at the end of the room, the sight she had first awoken to, those yellow orbs meeting to the eyes of Sarah and that of her mother, both who looked a little shocked and deeply relived. No words were said at first, but the expressions brought a soft little smile to her face, shock likely because it had been the first time either of them had seen someone armed so close before, let alone someone they knew so well or were so concerned about. It was slightly amusing, looked at from a different angle with bits omitted through lack of information. She, Senia, Erildisan native, had been presumed lost in the woods of her homeland, her woods, and they'd called the military to search for her. She snickered, a soft, quite sound, adding confusion to their faces before she got a hold of herself, paused in her move to get up off the bed, opting to remain on the comfortable seat for now, only rotating her thighs again to sit facing the chairs as they moved to sit down there, on either side of the snoozing, exhausted form of Qui. What... did one say in this situation?
She made the first move, adjusting the volume of her voice to match the quite enviroment with the only thing she could think of to say. Words, so carefully planned and articulated in her mind came out in a jumbled mess, unintellible to no one, including herself, which left Sarah smiling, and choking back laughter in a desperate attempt to not wake Qui, even despite the situation the falcon found herself in. Shaking her head instead of giving any real answer, not having one or not wanting to give one, she said the only thing a friend would in just such a state, the correct answer even if it was the wrong one. "Just glad you're okay," with a short addition, needless but needed. "We were worried,"
"Trust a group of mecenaries to ruin our evening," Senia replied with a soft joking tone to her words, too quickly, too hastily as her mind caught up a few moments later shocked at herself, people died that night, not even a full twenty-four hours ago, two to her talons and bladed tail, crew of the armoured vehicle, those in the theatre... she shut her eyes and shook her head, almost anguished by the loss of life so close before she took a deep breath, opening her eyes to such concern and worry by her friend and her mother. Quickly, she tried to put a stop to that, perhaps met with little success, if any at all. It seemed likely unlikely that the world would stop worrying after what had happened for a sizeable moment of time, no matter how quickly she wanted things to return to normal, before everything. "Don't worry. What's the time?" the last bit she threw together hastily to get the subject changed before she was aksed questions she did not want to answer and didn't feel like explaining why... not sure if she could explain why without answering the question or running around in circles like her thoughts were currently doing. A quick glance at their clocks, from her upside down gaze at them and their audible confirmation, midday. Midday thursday, to be precise, middle of the day when she was meant to be in class, learning... well, first of all, she'd missed that appointment blank, straight up, which wasn't a good thing considering someone would have called her in as not attending, in a hospital, word of which would have gotten back to Chris in lightning speed and record time, one only wondered what would happen then... Another worry to push to the back of her head, eyes and head lifting to meet the gaze of her friend's, and her friend's family once more, smiling a soft, happy sort of curve to her lips.
Faked, but a smile none the less.