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Nighthawk's Dream; A Freeform.
Topic Started: Dec 4 2011, 10:30 PM (349 Views)
Steel Cerberus
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Go for it, run towards it, dive in head first. Live life with no regrets!
Word Count: 3.038

Summary: Two travelers cross near the frozen monument, with very radically different opinions about the place.

Reward: LP

Notes: This freeform sprung to mind one day while I was listening to some music, so this is kind of a pseudo song story? No actual lyrics put in separately, but I'm kinda planning on having the English translation woven in. idk man we'll see how it goes, right? The whole thing still looks better in my head but w/e. I tried.

And um. When I thought of this, for whatever reason I imagined the Frozen Monument to be like... half of the fortress sticking up above the ice? A couple days ago, I realized that wasn't the case, but... I'm keeping it the way I thought of it, at least for this. Partially for the Rule of Cool and partially because a part of this story wouldn't even be without things being the way I see them. So yeah.

And this was originally where I was going to ask for Bec to get his teleportation thing, but I got that for Giftmas last year, so this just explains the first time he uses it, I guess.



Posted Image Posted Image

"Catalyst."

"Yes?"

"You mentioned before that my 'powers' weren't unique in concept. What did you mean by that?"

"You think that your control over an element is unique? It is rare, but not unheard of even back in Jgsei."

"So, wait, there's other people like me and Alex and Ben over there?"

"Of course. You didn't think you were unique, did you?"
Edited by Steel Cerberus, Nov 23 2012, 05:21 PM.
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Steel Cerberus
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Go for it, run towards it, dive in head first. Live life with no regrets!
The bird's wings made barely a sound as he flew low over the ice, black feathers fluttering in the wind. Even with his sharp yellow eyes, the hawk couldn't see their destination yet. It didn't help much that the fog was so thick that it kept the shape of the moon invisible. It was like they were in their own special pocket of nothing.

His rider sighed, pushing up the helmet visor and rubbing the bridge of her nose. What were they even doing here? Why? There was no point to it, was there? It had been nearly a year, and she still didn't know what to do...

They couldn't bring back the dead. She had power, but not that power.

The pair continued on.
Edited by Steel Cerberus, Nov 21 2012, 02:16 PM.
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Steel Cerberus
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Go for it, run towards it, dive in head first. Live life with no regrets!
Steely sighed slowly, seeing a cloud of steam rise in front of her face and fade away. The fortress loomed above them, a reminder for everyone of how stupid they all were. At least, that's how Steely thought about it.

The Jgsei people couldn't be that different, Steely reasoned to herself even though she wasn't sure why. Perhaps the eerie silence of the giant deathtrap looming above the ice, the thoughts of the army they had fought against, and the reports after the fact about the heretic tribe...

(They can't be that different, right?)

She didn't even know what she was trying to rationalize here. The fact that she felt bad? About what? It was war.

So what was bothering her?
Edited by Steel Cerberus, Feb 15 2012, 07:31 PM.
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Steel Cerberus
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Go for it, run towards it, dive in head first. Live life with no regrets!
The nighthawk rider crumpled the map she had in a gloved fist, putting it away and not bothering with it anymore. She couldn't even read what it said, and even if she could it would mean nothing to her. Nothing, nothing, nothing...

<"What are we doing out here, Nighthawk?"> she said to the bird in their native tongue, and patted his neck. His sharp yellow eyes were scanning below, and he didn't seem to hear her. <"My brother would be so mad if he knew we were dwelling like this.">

Her mount screeched suddenly, drawing her attention down to the ground. They were closer to it now, circling the head of the fortress and descending. Her sharp eyes caught something bright white near the ground, and she had Nighthawk go lower. The person was of no significance to her, being someone that she didn't recognize, but the giant white monster made her squint. It wasn't a Jgesi native pokemon, that much was obvious after a second...

So was that an Opaddekan soldier down there? One of the ones that had fought against them? Who else would be stupid enough to come to this forsaken place.

She felt her blood start to boil suddenly, and hunkered down on Nighthawk's back, directing him for the attack. Tonight, somebody was going to feel the wrath of their justice.
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Steel Cerberus
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Go for it, run towards it, dive in head first. Live life with no regrets!
Steely's expression dropped when she heard a sharp noise in the fog, an angry screech that she remembered distinctly. Now, she knew the species of pokemon that had attacked the event when Opaddeka's Elite Four had returned... braviary. She had one of her own, at this point, but Falcon was different. On some level, though, the giant bird still unnerved her. If his feathers didn't glitter unnaturally, blue instead of red, she may not have kept him.

Both Steely and Becquerel snapped their heads up at the noise, trying peer through the night's moon-lit darkness and the fog at the same time. A shape of solid black coalesced out of the dark, talons forward and rocketing towards them. The mount reacted first, ducking down and jumping forward out of the enemy's path. Steely twisted to try and get out of the way as well, but the Nighthawk raked his talons and managed to catch Steely's side with one foot, ripping four gashes in both her winter clothing and her flesh that immediately started bleeding. Gripping tight to Bec's fur, they turned and snarled even while Steely felt her shirt sticking to her side, burning with pain. By now, she was used to ignoring pain.

The mightyena bolted after them with a roar that Steely had never heard him make before. His ears were flat as he tore after the bird at full speed over the ice, and Steely hunkered down to help against the wind. For a moment, it seemed like they were catching up.

The Jgsei invader gave herself the satisfaction of a little smirk, having seem the spray of crimson, however brief. A tiny adjustment indicated for her bird to ascend, and he did so abruptly, right as Bec would have chomped down on his tailfeathers. Steely pulled back and Bec skidded to a stop, both of them looking around... but their attacker had disappeared into the fog. It was suddenly quiet, unusually so, and if it wasn't for the gashes in her side, Steely would have sworn that there was nothing out there. Nothing heard but the frigid air, nothing seen but the clouds of fog. Nothing.
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Steel Cerberus
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Go for it, run towards it, dive in head first. Live life with no regrets!
There continued to be nothing for longer then Steely liked, and would have started to question her sanity if it wasn't for the fact that she could feel the blood freezing to her clothing and skin as she had her hand pressed into her side to try and get it to stop. Granted, she knew somewhere in her mind, that she needed to get her side looked at as soon as possible, but she still pushed Bec to walk slowly around the fortress, looking for their assailant. The armor of the war machine was covered by a crest of ice that Steely knew ran deeper then the surface. Everything had essentially been flash-frozen by an absurdly powerful legendary, making the normally strong armor brittle with enough force. She could only barely make out the shape in the fog of the machine, but she'd seen it clearly enough for one lifetime when it had stomped through Brightopolis.

It reminded her, oddly enough, of the celebration in the city after they'd 'won' the war. Steely had gone only out of slight, morbid curiosity, and wasn't sure if anyone else in BT had gone. She knew that she hadn't really felt like celebrating much of anything, especially with the city still destroyed in places like it was. It had, ultimately, been a bad idea, especially for anyone who had actually fought in the thing. After all, it was extremely difficult to move past that strong feeling of hate at something so senseless. Steely, herself, was still trying to figure out how she felt about everything.

The fog seemed to clear a little and it got brighter as they rounded the hind end of the fortress half under the ice, walking back towards the head jutting out skyward. It couldn't have been the sun rising... they hadn't been out that long. Steely's wandering thoughts were dashed away by the wind when she looked up, and saw the Nighthawk dive bombing for them again. This time, Bec crouched and lunged off sideways, the hooked claws raking past her harmlessly. The Opaddekan native got a good look at her attacker this time, immediately recognizing the style of the Jgseian armor. Though, the warrior and the bird had a particularly light set, more then likely because of the fact he needed to be able to fly properly. She also noticed something she found odd; the warrior didn't have any weapons visible. All the ones she remembered from the battle had some form of something.

But Steely was armed at all times, even if she hadn't brought anything normal but an unloaded revolver with her. By now it was second nature for Steely to fix the leather pouch of sharpened metal feathers to her side, not to mention the other things Steely was capable of...

One hand buried in Bec's neck fur, the other snapped out to her side. The top of the pouch at her side flipped open and three or four carefully sharpened pieces of metal zipped out, pulled by magnetic fields controlled by Steely. She flicked her arm forward, directing them to the rider of the hawk. This only took a second from Bec ducking to the side, and the metal slashed through the rider's clothes and along the side of her torso. The shards came back to Steely, stained with a little crimson blood, when she twitched her hand to bring them back.

The Nighthawk powered away again as the foreigner's arm went to her side automatically, pulling away to look at the blood. She looked back to see Bec and Steely hot on their heels, racing along the ground, and tightened her grip on her mount. They had to win... but how?

She remembered something suddenly and turned the bird towards the fortress, flying practically up the side of it. Bec followed, claws scraping on the ice and metal as he fought his way up to follow, racing to keep up as the bird flew above the neck of the machine, towards the head. Steely realized quickly that they were getting away, and raised her hand again. Birds did not like lightning.

The wild sound of crackling electricity got the warrior to look back, just in time to notice Steely with a ball of lightning in her hand, pointing towards them. On impulse, she twisted to the side, and the bird rolled away just in time for the bolt to fly past with only a bit of faint discomfort. The warrior's eyes widened behind the tempered glass plate in the eyes of the helmet, and Steely smirked a little.

They continued through the fog, Bec dashing like mad to keep up with the bird as they came to the head of the fortress. Again, Bec had to scrabble awkwardly to scale part of it, but he found himself running up the horn all the same. He took one leap at the bird, which suddenly rolled away, disappearing into the mist again as Bec fumbled for steady footing, suspended so high off the ground like they were. Luckily, he planted his feet steadily and looked around, on the highest point of the broken machine. With the fog around them, it was like they were suspended in space with nothing else around.

Again, it was painfully quiet and still as Bec balanced himself on the horn of the monument, trying to peer through the mist. He howled into the fog, listening to it fade into nothing. Steely felt herself shaking, though she wasn't sure if it was from exhaustion, adrenaline, or anger, and she roared out wordlessly into the fog with Bec. Still, silence.

Deflating a little and feeling her emotions burn off slightly, she sighed and squinted, completely unaware of the silent black shape swooping down right behind her. The moon was at such an angle, and they were high enough above the fog that Steely saw the dark shadow in front of them before the Nighthawk's claws sunk into her shoulders and bodily pulled her off of Bec's back, while the dog instinctively ducked.

The Nighthawk only held onto her for a few seconds, getting far enough away from the fortress to fling their captive off into the air, free to fall all the way to the valley floor.
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Steel Cerberus
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Go for it, run towards it, dive in head first. Live life with no regrets!
It is really, really hard to keep calm while you're falling to your death, Steely discovered.

The bird darted away again, though Steely swore she caught the eyes of the warrior for a second. There was triumph there, that much was obvious, but also... uncertainty? Even if the Jgseian was having second thoughts, the bird still disappeared into the mist, leaving Steely to fall. She could feel where the claws had ripped into her shoulders, but that seemed like less of a pressing concern when she was falling backwards towards a layer of ice that may as well have been concrete.

She was going to die. She was going to hit the ground, break her neck (not to mention everything else) and that was just going to be the end of it. It was... mildly disappointing. Killed by gravity, of all the mundane things in the world.

(So much for being invincible, am I right?)

(Heh.)

They didn't get much time to reflect on things, though thoughts of her friends flashed through her mind briefly. Falling the way she was, Steely could see Bec practically leaning all the way off the top, moving like he was going to... jump after them. To her horror, Bec actually did. Whatever she may have screamed died in her throat when the white dog fizzled green and... disappeared.

(...wha-)

The air next to her fizzled and Bec reappeared, grabbing the shoulder of her coat in his teeth and yanking so she wasn't falling headfirst anymore. The buzzing ramped up again, and suddenly Steely wasn't even sure they were in the same reality anymore, at least for a split second. Before she knew it, Bec's paws were touching the ground back in Murmur.

The dog's sudden teleportation took Steely by complete surprise, and she slammed hard into the ice on her side, bruised but not badly hurt. She tried to stand up while processing what had just happened, panting while she braced herself on all fours for a moment, hands flat against the ice and taking in giant breaths of freezing air, listening to her heart hammer in her ears. Bec's claws scrabbled next to her as he shot off again, snarling and disappearing in another fizzle of neon green electricity. The braviary still in the fog screeched again, and Steely looked up to see Bec with his teeth embedded in the bird's shoulder, falling as the bird and the rider tried to get Bec to let go. The white dog twisted and suddenly let go as some of his white fur was sent flying by something Steely couldn't see, but that offset the bird and the rider tumbled to the ice, rolling back to their feet. Steely finally managed to haul herself upright with a snarl, crackling with electricity.

The bird shrieked and tried to get back to his rider, but was cut off with a snarl and a white dog lunging again. They continued fighting out of sight in the mist, but Steely only had eyes for the target in front of her. Under normal circumstances, she knew she wouldn't be blindly attacking like this, but nearly being killed tended to throw out whatever hesitation she may have felt. Steely pointed at the warrior with her pointer and middle fingers, and the electricity crackled down her arm and out at that point, a blinding flash of blue and white light. It hit the Jgsei warrior and threw them back, though like all the others it didn't appear to do any damage. Seemed to have enough force to blow the helmet right off, and Steely paused as she continued bearing down when the other blue-eyed woman glared back at her.

(Ohoho, shit, you're a chick. Why does that surprise me?)

What surprised them even more was, a second later, when the warrior raised her arms and the wind suddenly kicked up, a lot like... (Oh man I think she can do the wind thing like I do the zappy thing.)

The Jgseian pointed both hands at Steely and the wind followed with scything blades of air that Steely felt over her arms and sides even while she ducked out of the way. Steely, feeling warm blood leak out, growled again and countered with another bolt of lightning that seemed to have more of an effect now, making the warrior shudder and sink to her knees. They glared at each other, panting, trying to figure out a next move.

The ice shuddered suddenly with an impact, and the pair looked over, seeing Nighthawk on the ground with Bec on top, paws planted in the middle of the bird's back and his mouth at the bird's throat. The Jgsei warrior threw her hands up and screamed something in a language that Steely didn't understand. It didn't require any translation, though.

(Fuck this, let Bec snap its neck,) Kat snarled, without mercy, in their mind. Steely saw the minute hesitation in Bec, and looked at the Jgsei warrior. She had a recognizable expression of terror, looking at the bird instead of Steely as the black bird was pinned under the dog. The blonde stood up slowly, and put her hands up towards Bec, indicating for him to stop.

The white wolf froze with his face buried in the bird's neck feathers, teeth inches away from the Nighthawk's spine. He wagged his tail uncertainly, otherwise staying completely still. Steely lowered her arms slightly, clapping at Bec like she did when she beckoned him over to her. He sprung away and trotted over, throwing looks back to make sure he wasn't going to be jumped. Steely buried her hands in his thick fur when he finally got there, and watched the warrior scramble over to her bird when he scrambled upright. The foreigner tried to check her bird for wounds, but Nighthawk squalled and snapped his beak, nowhere near her fingers but still enough to indicate that he was fine and he wanted her to stop fussing.

Now, reunited with their mounts, they looked at each other again. Steely ducked down a little so just her eyes were peering around the white dog's bulk, and the Jgsei warrior frowned at her, then at her bird. The hawk trilled at her softly as she climbed back aboard.

The warrior and the Nighthawk gave Steely and Bec one final glance before the bird opened his giant wings and took off into the mist with one powerful beat of his wings, leaving them in silence.

Steely let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"...what the hell just happened?"
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Kyozuki
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Articuno
Breakdown

CREATIVITY: 3 - The story was rather basic, with no twists or surprises - but then that wasn't really the point. It's a simple scenario, with the focus on the action, and it does that well. It kept my interest, and it made the two sets of combatants seem very evenly matched. The hinting at the other person being something of a Jgsei parallel to Steely was a nice touch too.

BELIEVABILITY: 4 - None of the actions by any of the characters feel contrived. All of it follows on naturally from the starting condition of "a warrior from Jgsei and a soldier from Opaddeka meet at the Frozen Monument" Given the characterization of both the Braviary-lady and Steely, I don't see this panning out any other way.

TECHNICAL PROWESS: 5 - Didn't catch any mistakes, the story didn't meander or get lost, it stayed focused and did what it set out to do.

Base :lp score = 81

+5 word count & summary
+2 sticking to summary
+3 easy to read

Final :lp score = 91


And that gives you 91 :lp from last year :P
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