[Viper finds herself in a fully glass case somewhere unknown.]
Spark, Elara, and the figure all stare at her. Spark, as if continuing on from his last sentence before snapping everyone away adds on, "See? Much better to show than tell. One less person able to stand in my way. Hope you enjoy your stay."
Viper looks around as she smiles at Spark, "Oh I will! See you soon!" She still maintains her corporate happiness act, waiting for Spark to walk away.
[Spark and Elara turn around but the figure does not. It doesn't seem to be staring anymore though, so her arms are free. It almost looks curious.]
Viper huffs as she watches Spark walk away, her fake smile disappearing like it wasn't even there she pats herself down, searching for her phone and if she finds it she quickly checks if she has reception.
[You have your phone but in a rare twist of fate, you have zero bars. The usually incredible connection doesn't seem to reach where they are. Her Dagger of the Avatars is still equipped.]
Viper groans as she opens her notes app and types out "SITUATION IS FUBAR, FUBAR" then notes she still has her dagger as she puts her phone away and looks at the figure as she asks "Are you just...gonna stare?"
It doesn't respond. On further inspection, it's somewhat owl-shaped. Snow white feathers, a vaguely feminine humanoid body. Wings. It's beautiful but its power is dangerous.
Viper nods at it's silence and sighs as she speaks, "Right, right, not really much of a talker" she moves her left hand to the dagger and seems nervous as she asks "I'm not gonna try and hurt you, I just wanna leave, are you gonna let me do that?" despite knowing it probably can't talk, asking is still probably a good idea
A portal opens up and Patrice finds herself in the same all glass cell as Viper.
The owl continues to stare as Spark adds, "Ah, you got a friend now. Have fuuun~!" Elara shakes her head and reminds her father, "hey, don't forget to payout 22AB up in Advertising dad."
Spark waves her off, "yeah yeah, I got it." He presses a button on his phone.
Patrice looks around, "This reminds me of that job in New London, I'm not gonna lie. Only this time I'm inside, so... not as fun."
Viper rolls her eyes at Spark then looks over at Patrice as she asks "Do you have a plan to get out cause if not, I have an idea"
Spark and Elara leave as the Owl creature continues to watch the situation unfold.
Patrice answers, "Beside opera singing? No. Not really. Nothing that wouldn't also obliterate us in the process."
Viper snickers as she shakes her head then nods, "Right, well then I'm executing my plan" she pulls out the Dagger of the Avatars from the right side of her belt. It works. She notices it vibrating for some reason, almost like it's shuddering. It kind of feels the same way of how Luna cries. Like it's connected to her emotions in a way?
[The Owl creature tilts its head.]
Patrice looks at the owl, marvelling it, staring at it with a giddy grin. She steps closer to the glass to look at the owl. Patrice somehow knows its name is Moon Mantle, almost like its name was channeled to her automatically.
Viper turns to one of the walls of the glass box away from the owl as she speaks, "I'm hoping this is normal glass and not some magic glass, cause if it is then things are gonna end poorly" she imagines the blade to be red with heat coming off of it
[Fire Mode is active. With the vibration, she also recognizes it's in Boost Mode.]
Patrice puts her right hand on her heart, and bows. "One must asks how things turned out like this," she whispers.
Moon Mantle stares, but on seeing the bow, it bows back in the same fashion. Somehow, Patrice knows the following: "It's because of the moon. My home."
Viper presses the tip of the blade against the glass to test if it'll melt the glass on it's own or if it'll need some help
[The 'glass' isn't affected at all. It's less like glass and more like a forcefield of some kind.]
"Is it like what the people say? That the moon is falling?" she whispers.
The owl looks saddened, even with its face not exactly having much emotion to it. In the cell, something appears that Patrice takes notice of. Somehow, Patrice knows the following: "Save my home."
Viper huffs as she notes that the glass is unaffected as she speaks, "This isn't glass most likely, I'm gonna need to try and weaken whatever this is before I try to breach it." She takes a moment to think of a spell that would be powerful enough for this. [Unfortunately, none of the spells that the DAGGER OF THE AVATARS is capable of can break through this forcefield. It's less like it's weak to some kind of magic but rather is countering it.]
Patrice looks at the item in the cell. [It looks vaguely like a golden revolver of some sort, except it has no place to put bullets into it.] Somehow Patrice knows the following: "Take my soul shard and save my home." It appears to have some kind of magical aura attached to it and considering the six chambers, it probably has six shots of it.
Patrice picks up the revolver, testing its heft.
[It's not that heavy, but if you brained someone with it, you will probably cause heavy damage or death. Doesn't seem to be too high caliber either.] Somehow, Patrice knows the following: "Telekinetic Control Magic revolver. Shoot at counterspell forcefield, see what happens."
"I... um, thank you," Patrice whispers. She aims the revolver at a higher part of the case, takes a deep breath, and pulls the trigger.
[As the intention for this attack is obvious, the telekinetic magic bullet launches from the barrel of her revolver and strikes the forcefield, shattering it. The owl stares at Patrice, but it's almost like it's smiling? It's really hard to tell with its stoic owl face.]
Somehow, Patrice knows the following: "Good luck. If we meet again, it will not be as easy." Then it disappears.
Patrice pockets the revolver and bows. She then walks up to Viper and taps her shoulder. "I think that would do, wouldn't it?"
Viper who has been sitting on the floor staring at the forcefield looks over at Patrice and shrugs, "I suppose that would work, were you...talking to the owl?" she stands up as she keeps her dagger close to her feeling as if she needs to find Luna
Viper notices something flashing on the dagger. It looks like the moon symbol flashing red. The feeling of being watched stopped as soon as Moon Mantle disappeared. Viper raises an eyebrow at the moon symbol flashing red and shows it to Patrice "I don't know about you but that doesn't seem good."
She looks at it and shakes her head, "A flashing red never is good. Should we get out of here posthaste?"
[The symbol is almost like a button in this state. What's the worst that could happen?]
Viper nods as she hovers her thumb over the moon symbol, tempted to press on it as she starts looking for a way out of the area they are in
[There doesn't seem to be one. No elevator, no door, in fact the warehouse they're in currently is just a hollowed out concrete block about the size of a small military arsenal.]
"If you want to press it, press it. It's not like it can get worse, really."
Viper nods as she takes a deep breath and presses the moon symbol "It's not like it's gonna blow up or something, they would've told me about that"
"At least it would be a direction to go out, if it does blow up."
[They blow up.]
[Just kidding.]
[They both vanish.]
Out in the front yard, two people appear about 50 feet away from the pair desperately searching for their loves. Luna is breaking down at a rapid pace with red flame aura surrounding her. Her eyes are deep crimson. Hinata is still focusing on saving their friends and hasn't noticed them yet. Luna howls as if whatever she is doing is physically hurting her. “I fucking REFUSE TO LOSE TO YOU SPARK!!!!!”
Patrice looks around until her eyes fall on Luna and Hinata. Her eyes widen, and she rushes toward them.
Viper who had closed her eyes opens them and glances around and upon spotting Luna and Hinata, without a second thought calls out to them, "MY LOVES" as she sheathes her dagger and rushes towards them
The moment Luna notices her plan worked, she collapses under her own weight. The aura dissipates along with her. Hinata has officially broken down out of sheer happiness that it all worked.
Patrice skids to a halt on the grass near them and kneels down before them. "Hey, hey, hey, it's OK, it's OK. We're here now," she whispers to them both.
Viper hugs Luna as tightly as she possibly can without hurting her as she whispers "I'm here now, I'm here, thank you, thank you so much"
Luna's knocked out, but she's breathing. Hinata calms down significantly when she sees Viper and Patrice, "ah-- oh, uh hey. S-Sorry. Glad you two are safe."
Patrice catches her breath and asks, "I'm glad you two got us back here, but... how did you know we were in peril?"
Viper slowly looks over at the dagger then back at Hinata with a raised eyebrow, as she gently lays Luna down in the grass and speaks "Did the dagger have something to do with it? The moon symbol was flashing red...."
It takes her a few minutes to fully calm down, but Hinata wipes her face off with her shirt and responds, "Oh that? It's because the dagger is connected to our souls. When Luna realized she couldn't sense it anymore, she panicked and tried to scan for it. It was basically hopeless for hours, but we never gave up the fight. At some point, I guess your Dagger reacted, and that's the flashing. It's a hidden ability of your weapon, giving you a means to teleport to us, but it costs her a LOT of mana, hence why she ragdolled."
Luna is still sleeping. It seems like whatever magic she needed to perform took a LOT out of her. A soft smile is on her face though.
She nods, "I see. I would have hoped that it is not such a strain, but knowing that it is, it feels like a last resort, when it's really needed."
Viper unintentionally stares at Hinata as she wipes her face with her shirt then quickly shakes her head and looks at her face then says "I wish I had noticed it sooner, I didn't mean to stress you two out so much"
"It's okay. I'm sorry we never told you about it. It probably mimicked a bomb or something." Hinata giggles.
Luna finally wakes up after feeling her mana return. Upon seeing her friends safe, she breathes a sigh of relief, though it still causes her to cry.
Upon seeing Luna wake up, Patrice smiles. "Hey, Luna. You... uh... you feeling alright?"
Viper glances around suspiciously at the mention of it mimicking a bomb then looks over at Luna and sighs in relief as she crouches next to her and offers a hug to her
Luna accepts the hug and mutters, "i was scared. i was so so scared that i lost two more people today and i knew i had to fight back, but when nothing worked i just. lost it. i'm just glad... you're here..." She's still crying in between phrases, and nothing can make her hide it.
HInata nods in agreement with what Luna says. "Seriously, we completely lost your signal. What the hell happened? That's... never happened before."
Viper nods as she sighs and looks towards the house, "We should probably head inside before we talk about that....there's some...big information that I have to tell you three" she whispers as she asks "Are you okay to walk or do you want me to carry you?"
Luna releases from the hug and gets up. She wobbles a little bit but is able to steady herself enough. Hinata takes her hand and leads the way inside. "Patrice? You're welcome to come in if you want." Hinata says with a smile.
Viper uncrouches as she stands up and heads inside. Patrice also heads inside.