Luna steps inside and sits on the couch. Dusk hops up on Luna's lap and she begins petting it gently. It purrs in such a way that it's almost sensing Luna's emotional wavelengths and trying to calm her down. Viper walks next to the couch and leans on it's arm rest as she smiles at Luna Luna seems to be focused elsewhere. It takes her a full minute before she smiles back to Viper, but it doesn't seem to be out of disdain or otherwise. Hinata sits next to Luna. Patrice walks in and also sits on the sofa. With three people plus Meowmo, it’s a wonder that the sofa hasn’t broken.
Regardless, Luna takes a deep breath and asks, "So what did you need to tell us Viper?" Hinata is vibing. Dusk is laying down while Luna continues to pet it. She's almost like Dr. Evil except Dr. Evil is evil.
Viper sighs as she answers, "You, Hinata, Spider and someone named....Teresa P. Kells? All have a 10k bounty on their heads, after this was revealed soft music started playing and everyone but me fell asleep....then Spark put me in some kind of glass box along with them" she gestures at Patrice.
"Teresa P. Kells??? Who the hell is that?" Hinata raises an eyebrow.
"This needs a bit of backtracking, I think," Patrice chimes in. "Last year, while you two were knocked out during our gift exchange by Spark, I talked with him for long enough that Tsukuyomi and Jan came and knocked him out. One of the things I told him is that my name is Teresa P. Kells." She giggles to herself, before continuing, "Of course, he misses the fact that if you were to rearrange every letter of Teresa P. Kells, you would get Spark Estelle."
Luna sighs, "He doesn't exactly give me intellectual vibes. Or the kind to solve puzzles. Soooooo we're wanted then? Great. That's amazing. I'm worth 10 thousand bucks?? Fuck, I'll turn myself in at that point." She giggles after saying that but realizing that it's a very valid threat, that giggle dies nearly instantly.
Hinata shakes her head, "That can't be all of it right? Like... he realizes he's fighting directly against The Gang here. There have to be other failsafes against his plan."
Patrice muses, "I reckon there are, 'cause otherwise it feels a bit lackluster. You cannot slap a bounty on people and call it a day. You want to crank the pressure on them. Send a few hunters their way, make them scramble, make them make mistakes, and then you come in for the kill."
Viper shakes her head and sighs "If he fights directly against The Gang, I can't imagine that would be very good for his health...."
"Also, I do have to point out that even though I'm currently having a 10 thousand bounty on my head, I still managed to get a cup of white at Earthbound, a coffee shop in Solar District, waltz into Solar Guild and have a talk with Rebecca, waltz out of the Guild and walk into the Tower without anyone the wiser. Which... I am baffled that nobody even stopped me in the streets. I would have thought the whole city would be scrambling to find us, but no."
"Wait you're telling me that the citizens of Capital City really don't give a fuck about us? I almost feel sad. Almost. That's... honestly pathetic." Luna sighs, "Are you telling me THIS is the man we're supposed to be worried about???"
Hinata nods morbidly, "Yes. He's just trying to use his position of power to have others do the dirty work for him. I remember working for Solaire, $10k was chump change to our books. Remember, we were given $1000 just for the arcade when we first met."
"If he isn't holding the deck, I wouldn't have worried. But he is, and that's the worrying part." Patrice takes a breath before continuing on, "And if that's not worrying enough, what Rebecca speculated and what the Moon Mantle communicated makes it about three or four times worse, at least to me."
"Wait..." Luna blinks loudly, "What do you mean 'what Moon Mantle communicated'??? Y-You.. you interacted with her??"
Viper looks over at Patrice with a raised eyebrow
"It's... hard to categorize exactly what that was, I'm not gonna lie. I whispered, and then, like, they answered, but it's not sound. It's like I suddenly know what they just said."
"I--" Luna immediately pulls out her laptop and notes that. "I know it's called The Deafening Silence but... that's really strange. Well what did it tell you?" She looks really scared all of a sudden. Maybe it's just intuition from being a CoL herself.
"Lemme try and remember here..." She closes her eyes. Her words come out haltingly, with a higher pitch for the answers. "How did things turn out like this? ... My home, the moon. Is it because the moon's falling? ... Save my home." She puts her right hand into her pocket, and takes out the golden revolver.
She continued in the higher pitch, "Take my soul shard and save my home."
Luna is completely dumbfounded and struck into silence.
Hinata, on the other hand, looks super excited but also super confused. [Super confuscited???] "Holy shit you got a Soul Shard... wait wait wait, from Spark's Creature????? What the fuck? Huh? Waiiiiiit wait, even Moon Mantle's against Spark??? Wh-what? So... wait, it's the Concept of Control right? The fuck does this thing do? Looks like... magitech?"
Patrice smiles and shows off her Shard. "It said, ‘Shoot the forcefield, see what happens’. So I did. The thing shattered. Then, they bid me adieu with a good luck and a warning. A warning that it won't be this easy next time." She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes. "Something to that effect."
"....the forcefield? Is it... hey Viper, did you try using our Shard on it? I wonder if that's... why..." Luna gulps. Things might be making sense to her and she doesn't like it.
"Luna?" Hinata notices her typing like a madcatwoman.
Viper looks over at Luna and shrugs "I mean I pressed it against the forcefield? I thought it was glass at first"
"Hrm.. hey mind if I scan your Shard, Patrice?" Luna asks as her eyes turn deep red.
Patrice holds the gun up to Luna, "Nope."
Viper continues to watch and listen to the conversation
Luna goes to touch it and immediately puts her hand back. She growls in pain, but due to Error being the one in control, her voice doesn't seem to match her lips, "fuck fuckfuckfuck owwwwww. ow. fucking hell, what the hell is that thing? It's... Antimagic?!"
"Erm... antimagic?" she asks, confused.
Error is still in control, so the weird voice effect continues, "It's hard to explain. In a way, you broke through the forcefield because you denied that the magic holding it up existed. It's similar to telekinetic magic and requires intent, so your probable intention of 'break the forcefield' did exactly that to it. To put it in a way that Viper may understand, remember how Luna taught you that belief is the cornerstone of using magic? If you believe it, you'll see it. That gun is the opposite. It's basically telling that forcefield, 'I don't believe you exist. You don't exist!' And thus, it shatters."
Viper blinks several times and then raises an eyebrow "So it's basically a counter spell?"
"It is quite literally a Counterspell. A Magic Jammer, if you will. Negate. Force of Will. Are these Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh references helping you understand?"
"So... it's basically a 'No you don't' to magic?" She says with a high-pitched voice, "I am magic, and you will believe it's true." Then, with her normal voice, "Nah."
"Correct. That gun is very powerful, but do be warned that reloads on it may take a while. You only have six shots of it at any given moment. I do not know if this Antimagic can affect people directly, but considering the fact that my hand really hurts currently, I would recommend exercising caution. And as is usual, the effects of that gun will probably not work outside of Capital City or here."
"Duly noted. Would it lessen the effect it's having if I were to put it back in my pocket?"
Luna shrugs, "Unknown. You could try it."
Luna shows her hand and strangely, there’s nothing physically wrong with it naked to the non-magical human eye. No cuts, no discoloration, no visible burns. Despite that, it seems to be giving her some issues as she’s shaking it off.
Patrice raises her eyebrows. "Interesting." She puts the revolver back in her pocket.
Viper thinks for a moment then asks "So would that work if I tried casting a spell against them? Like lets say I cast a fireball, would it just vanish?"
"If I am understanding the forcefield correctly, that was made of the same telekinetic magic. It denies any spells thrown at it, but as it is magic itself, it can be denied. Had you attempted to cast fireball at it, it would have failed if so. It would also explain our difficulties with finding you two yesterday. My host spent hours searching for the Dagger, but she kept getting blocked. She didn't know if it was the upcoming full moon affecting her, or it was from her grief that caused her to fail. It was... dire. I have never seen her like that before."
Viper nods as she speaks, "Interesting, got it" she grabs her phone and starts typing notes into her notes app
As she is now clenching her fists, she's finding them to no longer hurt.
"Right, I must bid you adieu. My host is begging to swap back in." Her eyes return to blue. "Fucking hell error, it's my body. Lemme have some autonomy."
She looks upset. "Right. This is gonna sound insane, but I'll be honest, when I heard Chandra was killed by Spark, i kinda... lost it a little. Like yeah he was never good to me, but he was family still. And uh. Thinking you two were other gone... uhh. Look, if I couldn't find you, I was prepared to storm Nova Heart myself just to give you two a fucking chance to survive. It was Error who stopped me."
Viper checks her notifications, snickers at the deez nuts joke her AI sent in the server, then looks over at Luna and shakes her head "I didn't have reception, I wish I could've told you that I was fine, Spark didn't hurt me....other than putting me in a glass box"
"We were going to storm them." Hinata corrects Luna. Luna blushes. "And thank fuck he didn't harm you. I swear, he will pay for all of this GODDAMN BULLSHIT he's caused us. We can barely even leave the house anymore in fear of Nova doing something awful."
"They got traps all over the Tower, sadly, so that would have been a lot of hullabaloo for nothing. I got got by a trick window, which send me down there to Viper, and I dread what other nonsense they've got in there."
Viper thinks for a moment as she tip taps on her phone as she mutters "This is getting a little out my hands..."
"You're telling me Viper. I thought I understood what to do but. I'm lost. I don't even know what all of this is for? Domination? My power? I- I don't get it. This makes no damn sense!"
Patrice shrugs, "If there is an end goal, I have zero idea what it is."
Viper looks up from her phone and sighs "Yeah, hence why I'm letting someone know that I can't complete my job anymore since my badge likely doesn't work anymore" she partially snickers as she continues to tip tap at her phone
"Wha? I-- What? What do you mean your badge?" Hinata looks confused.
Viper stops tip tapping as she searches for her Nova keycard "My keycard for Nova, if I still have it i'm likely gonna just shred it or attach it to a random car"
"Did you try it? Let's be honest here, we know Spark's not exactly incredible at his job. He... sucks at this. It's possible he's never relinquished access."
"Yeah but do you actually think he'd be that incompetan-- you know what? I agree. This man is a boyfailure of the highest pedigree."
Viper pauses for a moment as she raises an eyebrow, "There's no way he's actually that stupid to one leave me with the keycard and two to leave it activated" she then resumes searching for the keycard
"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"
"I mean he's done stupider. He left you the Dagger of the Avatars." Luna sighs at this villain.
"I'm not gonna lie, the only thing I cannot confirm on that trip was if Jan is currently a co-Leader. Mostly because his appointment list is six months long, and Rebecca thinks we have about a month or so before the moon gets past the point of no return."
Viper pauses for a moment and looks over at Luna as she sighs, "True, true" she then looks over at Patrice and asks "About that....is Jan a guy with an eyepatch?"
"I think so? I haven't seen him for a good good long while now, so many of the details are smudged, but I remember him being old, and I remember him having an eyepatch. Left eye, if what I'm remembering is correct."
Viper sighs and nods "Yeah, that confirms it then, that exact description was standing on the stage next to Spark, along with a mint green bunny that I can't remember the name of right now"
Patrice looks at Viper, very confused, "I'm sorry, mint green bunny?! What?"
Luna gulps again, "Mint gre-- m-my sister? Did-- what the hell did they do to her?"
Viper answers as she looks towards the floor "I have no idea but she was speaking with a monotone voice, and said something about hypernova? They said she was their final line of defense"
"Really now?" Luna asks, shaking her head. "Final line of defense against who? Spark's bitch ass main body? That tells me a lot. He's got no defensive capabilities otherwise."
Hinata nods, adding on, "So is that why the moon is all fucked too? I don't know what the effect of it is out there, but it sounds like a fucking safeguard against us too. Are you getting what we're saying? If he was a man, he'd come after us himself, but instead he's using all of these pieces to fight us. It's a literal chessboard!"
Patrice looks up at the ceiling. She mutters, "I mean, it makes sense for that analogy. Barring some very few exceptions, the king is usually sequestered away in a corner via castling. The annoying part is that we don't have an angle to launch an attack against him. It's, like, almost too safe inside that tower."
Viper nods along as everyone speaks, finishing tip tapping on her phone as she powers it down and puts it in her pocket "With him getting this ramped up and ready for a full on assault, I'll have to see if I can get somewhere closer to the house temporarily incase something happens, I want to be able to help if I can"
Luna sighs and shakes her head, "I don't think he's willing to leave the tower. You heard Patrice. He's basically got defensive systems right up the wazoo, including booby-trapped portals disguised as normal windows. Like who the fuck makes this shit, unless you're so hellbent on controlling everyone that you're too much of a GODSDAMNED PANSY to leave. If we want to win, we need for him to leave that fucking tower, cuz the last thing I want to do is have to fight up that thousand plus floor tower just to have a chance at kicking his ass!"
Hinata nods in agreement, "maybe not as crass as her, but I think that's a good idea? Like think about it. He's got uncontrollable levels of power right now. We need to start breaking him down, or else, we're fucked. Like... can't we do something about the Creatures of Legend? Like free them or something?"
Viper thinks for a moment then sighs "You aren't gonna like who told me this information but yes, we need to free the Creatures of Legend as soon as possible considering the more people under his control the more mana he has, removing them from his control would be a considerable blow to his mana"
"Wait, who told you that and why are they on our wavelengths?" Luna questions, almost worried about the answer.
Viper pauses for an awkward amount of time as she speaks "Chandra..."
Her face drops on hearing his name. She's struggling to recognize the contradiction she just heard and tears begin to form. "Wh-what? When did you talk to him? How? I thought he was killed???"
Viper looks over at Luna, "I'm assuming he faked his death, we spoke a couple days ago after his second battle with Spark, he was pretty much covered in bandages" she sighs and shakes her head "We spoke at that Chipper Roasters place, he's been the one feeding me information on Spark"
[For her, hearing that information is like getting hit with a truck. Hard. If you watch over Luna, it's akin to the same feeling of sheer pain that a mental lock causes, a headache forms and her eyes close from the aching.] "He's alive? My b-brother is alive? He's not dead. Chandr-- Alexander is... not dead. He's... on our side?"
She's repeating this over and over as if not even believing her ears. Hinata tightly hugs Luna to try and help with the pain, grounding her.
Viper goes quiet as she glances away from Luna, hating seeing her love in pain but knowing that this is a step in the right direction, she scoots as close as she can to Luna without sitting on the couch
Luna's eyes have erupted into flowing tears. A smile slowly forms on her face. It'd be more accurate to call these tears of sheer joy rather than pain or suffering. "Chandra is alive. My brother is alive. We're not... completely fucked."
Viper smiles slightly as she mentions "I have his number, If you have any questions I can ask them for you, I know you don't like him very much"
"It's not... that I don't like him. We have history, lots and lots of bad blood between us. We've been rivals for... Gods above, fucking decades now. But at the same time.. he's basically my little brother. It's complicated. It's incredibly complicated and I don't have the words to describe it."
"Not to mention, he's the second Nightshade to undergo gender transition. So I guess Luna feels some solidarity in that?" Hinata shrugs.
Luna nods.
Viper nods as she responds "Got it, anything else you two need? Or want? Any questions?"
Luna finally relaxes after that Mental Lock opened up. "No, I'm okay. Thank you for giving me some hope though."
[After the group chats for a little while longer, both Patrice and Viper leave.]