04-22-2009, 03:20 AM
"Personally, I don't get what the big deal is. I mean, hell, until recently, the barracks didn't need non-communal showers, so you won't see
me complaining about opening the ranks up a little, if you know what I'm sayi-*CRUNCH*"
- Recorded log with Wolf Spider Enforcer Dwayne Giambi, seconds before his escort to a local medical facility by Bane Spider
Celestian due to a freak accident involving a piece of nearby masonry shaking loose at an inopportune time.
***
Talia could tell it was going to be one of those nights. Most people had instincts about this sort of thing, born of long experience with the kind of
swaggering machisimo that tended to gather at the bottom of the cesspool that was the Fort Cerebrus Wolf Spider barracks. Talia, by comparison, had a different
warning system.
"Hey, baby. Heard you got commended for taking out those Hellions over in the complex. What say we go celebrate a little?" a voice with too much
snake oil and not enough actual charisma to fill a shot glass asked as Talia sipped at her drink. It was always like this, and she didn't bother to read
his ID or even get a good look at his face. It wouldn't matter in a moment.
"I'd prefer to be alone right now. Don't bother me," she noted, the default warning required of the Arbiters to differentiate the stupid from
the awkward.
"Ah, don't be like that, honey," he replied, smooth as sandpaper as the hairs on the back of her neck rose. A hand rested itself on her shoulder,
quickly intercepted by an iron grip of her own.
"Last warning. Back off."
She felt the sneer. "What, you think you can just talk down to anyone, honey? We know your story. You got kicked
out of that special school. We don't have to scrape and kneel for you for shit now."
Talia's grip tightened. "Can't say I didn't warn you," she noted.
Pretty much anyone that ever saw a Widow in action would note their superhuman reflexes and agility. It was an essential part of what made them different from
the basic Wolf Spider soldiers and honed them to become the Night Widow assassins that were rightly feared. What few people knew was that one of the first
lessons a Widow candidate was taught was how to focus their psychic talents into reinforcing their own strength and speed, as this was essential regardless of
their career track. And even if the Fortunata mistresses had deemed Talia not powerful enough to ever exit the ranks of the Blood Widows, she had had enough training to pick up the first trick.
Which was why a man about forty pounds heavier than her was promptly swung over the bar, facefirst into armor plate, one handed, a second later. Talia looked
at the barkeep as she dragged him back out into the open. "Sorry about the mess."
"Don't worry about it. You didn't break anything, and he deserved it."
"Thanks," she noted, dragging the semi-conscious wolf spider over to a more durable wall. Picking up her rifle, she flipped it around in one hand,
gripping the barrel as she pulled it back. "You brought this on yourself, you know," she noted, before the first blow landed.
###
"I'm telling you, I'll be fine," Aya noted as she packed up her few belongings into a suitcase with her duty uniform, looking over at her
roommate.
"Yes, well....I don't know. I just have this feeling something's going to happen, and it doesn't feel good," Pia noted, fretting. The
other Blood Widow had spent most of her career with that feeling, though nothing unfortunate had ever happened to her. However, when her psychic gifts had
attracted the attention of the Fortunata, no one had been surprised. One constant prediction of doom that never came didn't sufficiently shroud a dozen
visions that did come true, and the Fortunata were hardly going to let her waste her ability in the Blood Widows.
Aya smiled again, taking Pia's hands in hers to stop their constant fidgeting as she looked at her. "I'm going to be fine, Pia. I'm just going
to Paragon City. The worst that could happen is that I get stuck in their prisons for a few months before the latest Zig break recovers me. That's hardly
awful, is it?" she asked with a smile.
Pia looked at her, biting her lip before nodding slightly, letting herself smile as Aya released her hands. "You're right. And this is a big
opportunity for you. I mean, look at how advanced Gladys...I mean, Nocturne...'s career was by going there. She's working with Arbiter Sands even.
Aya chuckled as she locked down her suitcase. "Point, though I'd rather not end up under her, if I can avoid it. We never did get along."
"That's because you were the same alpha female personalities and mixed like oil and water," Pia chuckled, before waiting a moment.
"Well....that and you lacked any sort of future sight to tell when you were about to piss her off," she noted with an amused look.
"Ha ha, a Fortunata joke. They have you already, I see," Aya said deadpan, before the two of them broke down laughing.
***
Aya sat back, bag over her shoulder as she hugged Pia close. Beside her, her brother Paulo watched the two with a fond expression of his own. But the last
member of Aya's little going away party was the reason why most of the soldiers about the docks seemed a bit more on edge. While she wasn't wearing her
helm and she seemed to be seeing off someone at the pier, the problems that could arrise for soldiers shirking their duties where a Night Widow could notice
them were....severe.
Letting go of Pia, Aya looked over at the woman that'd been her teacher, mentor, and friend all in one. "I'm surprised you were able to come to
see me off, ma'am. I heard you were scheduled for a mission."
The Night Widow smiled slightly even as she put a hand on Aya's shoulder. "A small thing involving some overconfident Family muscle. Hardly something
that can't wait for a few minutes while I see one of my protoge's off. And really, Aya. You can just call me Bella like all the others that've
graduated do. 'Ma'am' is for the classroom, not here."
Aya smiled slightly, ducking her head in acknowledgment as Pia giggled beside her. "Of course. I'll try to keep to your standards while I'm
gone....even if some there might not," she noted wryly.
Bella chuckled, patting her on the shoulder once more. "Of course. Now go. You don't want to be late for your arrival," she said, and Aya nodded,
turning to the ship. "Oh, and Paulo? Make sure your sister doesn't slip into being so doom and gloom all the time while I'm gone."
"You got it," the Wolf Spider nodded with a grin. "I'll make sure."
With that, Aya stepped onto the ferry, vanishing into the interior hold as the group waited for another moment, then headed off. As they did, Pia winced, then
shook her head slightly.
"Problem sis?" Paulo asked as she looked at him, for a moment almost seeing him as if stretched incomprehensibly large, Bella beside him flickering
in and out of view and the old familiar dread creeping up on her.
Pia shook herself again, then smiled. "No, it's nothing. Aya's right. I need to be less doom-saying."
***
Ayat scowled slightly as a letter arrived. Paragon City had proven one low level heist or breakout after another. Hardly anything to challenge her skills. She
was stagnating here and she knew it, yet no messages to the dispatch office had approve her request for transfer back to the Rogue Isles. It was a vicious
circle. She couldn't get a transfer to somewhere where she'd advance because she was too junior, and unless she got a transfer, she'd never get any
seniority.
Musing on this as she opened the letter, it was soon banished from her mind as she read the first few lines, feeling her heart seizing up as she did.
We regret to inform you of the unfortunate death of senior Night Widow Belladonna Vetrano. Your name was among those she
wished notified in case of her premature demise....
###
"C'mon, tell us
another one, oh mighty seer," one of the Wolf Spiders at the bar sneered as Cassandra felt a very difficult to restrain urge to stab the man where he
stood with a combat knife. However, she also knew that they wouldn't be dissuaded. She could see every step of the pattern of events that would spiral out
and had no particular burning desire to experience her first gang rape before she was 25 in an Arachnos brig. And so....
"Later today, you're going to make a crude remark about women being let into the Wolf Spider ranks. A Bane Spider will be flying overhead and she will
drop a brick on you from forty feet, resulting in a concussion that no one will be able to prove wasn't accidental."
There were laughs around the table as the asker in question was nudged by several of his buddies. Cassandra didn't need her telepathic talents to tell that
no on believed her. It'd been a long time since anyone had, in regards to her visions.
"C'mon, tell us another one. The big one you're always on about."
Cassandra knew this was coming, but really, there was no harm in the telling. That was her curse, after all.
"Project DESTINY will bring ruin to the world. Unless its path is diverted, the Destined One and Lord Recluse will die in combat with one another. Or
perhaps the Destined One will kill Recluse with his own Omega Bomb. Either way, it will not matter. The blasted Earth and the perils that follow will barely
change."
She looked up, her tone entirely serious.
"I see the mages of the Circle of Thorns, immortal spirits trapped in unwilling flesh, waiting as their bodies die of starvation for there is no
sustenance to be found. I see Silver Mantis weeping over the broken and dying body of Black Scorpion, the loss of her beloved Ernesto the only stimulus strong
enough to snap her back to sanity. I see a world inhabited by restless spirits, for nothing lives there anymore and nothing can. I see Dr. Aeon tracing paths
through time, echoes of past and future events, for only in the end will he see the truth of the beginning. I see the Destined One lifted up on a throne from
which the slings and arrows of a thousand powers assail him out of spite, for his conquest was at the expense of this world. I see death, doom, and damnation,
all tied to DESTINY, and I see a thousand paths taken to stop it, while a thousand more possibilities remain, ever waiting, ever lethal, and every single one
capable of dooming this world forevermore."
She sat back, her audience rapt, before opening her eyes. "That is what I see," she said, standing up and heading out the door. As she did, she felt
them watch her go, felt them considering her words.....and she felt the demonic touch reach into their minds, disputing, dissuading. Telling them that such
events could never be. There was no way.
".....as usual."
You knew the bargain. You accepted your fate. Even as you accept the fate of your world. It will all end in darkness and
fire.
Cassandra scowled as she heard the familiar voice of the silver tongued demon that had approached her years ago. The being she now knew to be a
monster known only as the Envoy of Shadows. Who thought one of the greatest Seers who could derail his planned apocalypse now denied, for her future sight was
forever blocked from use to anyone else.
He forgets that I believe my visions are true. And if he thinks that I cannot do
anything to stop him, he is in dire danger of finding his little joke coming back to bite him.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
me complaining about opening the ranks up a little, if you know what I'm sayi-*CRUNCH*"
- Recorded log with Wolf Spider Enforcer Dwayne Giambi, seconds before his escort to a local medical facility by Bane Spider
Celestian due to a freak accident involving a piece of nearby masonry shaking loose at an inopportune time.
***
Talia could tell it was going to be one of those nights. Most people had instincts about this sort of thing, born of long experience with the kind of
swaggering machisimo that tended to gather at the bottom of the cesspool that was the Fort Cerebrus Wolf Spider barracks. Talia, by comparison, had a different
warning system.
"Hey, baby. Heard you got commended for taking out those Hellions over in the complex. What say we go celebrate a little?" a voice with too much
snake oil and not enough actual charisma to fill a shot glass asked as Talia sipped at her drink. It was always like this, and she didn't bother to read
his ID or even get a good look at his face. It wouldn't matter in a moment.
"I'd prefer to be alone right now. Don't bother me," she noted, the default warning required of the Arbiters to differentiate the stupid from
the awkward.
"Ah, don't be like that, honey," he replied, smooth as sandpaper as the hairs on the back of her neck rose. A hand rested itself on her shoulder,
quickly intercepted by an iron grip of her own.
"Last warning. Back off."
She felt the sneer. "What, you think you can just talk down to anyone, honey? We know your story. You got kicked
out of that special school. We don't have to scrape and kneel for you for shit now."
Talia's grip tightened. "Can't say I didn't warn you," she noted.
Pretty much anyone that ever saw a Widow in action would note their superhuman reflexes and agility. It was an essential part of what made them different from
the basic Wolf Spider soldiers and honed them to become the Night Widow assassins that were rightly feared. What few people knew was that one of the first
lessons a Widow candidate was taught was how to focus their psychic talents into reinforcing their own strength and speed, as this was essential regardless of
their career track. And even if the Fortunata mistresses had deemed Talia not powerful enough to ever exit the ranks of the Blood Widows, she had had enough training to pick up the first trick.
Which was why a man about forty pounds heavier than her was promptly swung over the bar, facefirst into armor plate, one handed, a second later. Talia looked
at the barkeep as she dragged him back out into the open. "Sorry about the mess."
"Don't worry about it. You didn't break anything, and he deserved it."
"Thanks," she noted, dragging the semi-conscious wolf spider over to a more durable wall. Picking up her rifle, she flipped it around in one hand,
gripping the barrel as she pulled it back. "You brought this on yourself, you know," she noted, before the first blow landed.
###
"I'm telling you, I'll be fine," Aya noted as she packed up her few belongings into a suitcase with her duty uniform, looking over at her
roommate.
"Yes, well....I don't know. I just have this feeling something's going to happen, and it doesn't feel good," Pia noted, fretting. The
other Blood Widow had spent most of her career with that feeling, though nothing unfortunate had ever happened to her. However, when her psychic gifts had
attracted the attention of the Fortunata, no one had been surprised. One constant prediction of doom that never came didn't sufficiently shroud a dozen
visions that did come true, and the Fortunata were hardly going to let her waste her ability in the Blood Widows.
Aya smiled again, taking Pia's hands in hers to stop their constant fidgeting as she looked at her. "I'm going to be fine, Pia. I'm just going
to Paragon City. The worst that could happen is that I get stuck in their prisons for a few months before the latest Zig break recovers me. That's hardly
awful, is it?" she asked with a smile.
Pia looked at her, biting her lip before nodding slightly, letting herself smile as Aya released her hands. "You're right. And this is a big
opportunity for you. I mean, look at how advanced Gladys...I mean, Nocturne...'s career was by going there. She's working with Arbiter Sands even.
Aya chuckled as she locked down her suitcase. "Point, though I'd rather not end up under her, if I can avoid it. We never did get along."
"That's because you were the same alpha female personalities and mixed like oil and water," Pia chuckled, before waiting a moment.
"Well....that and you lacked any sort of future sight to tell when you were about to piss her off," she noted with an amused look.
"Ha ha, a Fortunata joke. They have you already, I see," Aya said deadpan, before the two of them broke down laughing.
***
Aya sat back, bag over her shoulder as she hugged Pia close. Beside her, her brother Paulo watched the two with a fond expression of his own. But the last
member of Aya's little going away party was the reason why most of the soldiers about the docks seemed a bit more on edge. While she wasn't wearing her
helm and she seemed to be seeing off someone at the pier, the problems that could arrise for soldiers shirking their duties where a Night Widow could notice
them were....severe.
Letting go of Pia, Aya looked over at the woman that'd been her teacher, mentor, and friend all in one. "I'm surprised you were able to come to
see me off, ma'am. I heard you were scheduled for a mission."
The Night Widow smiled slightly even as she put a hand on Aya's shoulder. "A small thing involving some overconfident Family muscle. Hardly something
that can't wait for a few minutes while I see one of my protoge's off. And really, Aya. You can just call me Bella like all the others that've
graduated do. 'Ma'am' is for the classroom, not here."
Aya smiled slightly, ducking her head in acknowledgment as Pia giggled beside her. "Of course. I'll try to keep to your standards while I'm
gone....even if some there might not," she noted wryly.
Bella chuckled, patting her on the shoulder once more. "Of course. Now go. You don't want to be late for your arrival," she said, and Aya nodded,
turning to the ship. "Oh, and Paulo? Make sure your sister doesn't slip into being so doom and gloom all the time while I'm gone."
"You got it," the Wolf Spider nodded with a grin. "I'll make sure."
With that, Aya stepped onto the ferry, vanishing into the interior hold as the group waited for another moment, then headed off. As they did, Pia winced, then
shook her head slightly.
"Problem sis?" Paulo asked as she looked at him, for a moment almost seeing him as if stretched incomprehensibly large, Bella beside him flickering
in and out of view and the old familiar dread creeping up on her.
Pia shook herself again, then smiled. "No, it's nothing. Aya's right. I need to be less doom-saying."
***
Ayat scowled slightly as a letter arrived. Paragon City had proven one low level heist or breakout after another. Hardly anything to challenge her skills. She
was stagnating here and she knew it, yet no messages to the dispatch office had approve her request for transfer back to the Rogue Isles. It was a vicious
circle. She couldn't get a transfer to somewhere where she'd advance because she was too junior, and unless she got a transfer, she'd never get any
seniority.
Musing on this as she opened the letter, it was soon banished from her mind as she read the first few lines, feeling her heart seizing up as she did.
We regret to inform you of the unfortunate death of senior Night Widow Belladonna Vetrano. Your name was among those she
wished notified in case of her premature demise....
###
"C'mon, tell us
another one, oh mighty seer," one of the Wolf Spiders at the bar sneered as Cassandra felt a very difficult to restrain urge to stab the man where he
stood with a combat knife. However, she also knew that they wouldn't be dissuaded. She could see every step of the pattern of events that would spiral out
and had no particular burning desire to experience her first gang rape before she was 25 in an Arachnos brig. And so....
"Later today, you're going to make a crude remark about women being let into the Wolf Spider ranks. A Bane Spider will be flying overhead and she will
drop a brick on you from forty feet, resulting in a concussion that no one will be able to prove wasn't accidental."
There were laughs around the table as the asker in question was nudged by several of his buddies. Cassandra didn't need her telepathic talents to tell that
no on believed her. It'd been a long time since anyone had, in regards to her visions.
"C'mon, tell us another one. The big one you're always on about."
Cassandra knew this was coming, but really, there was no harm in the telling. That was her curse, after all.
"Project DESTINY will bring ruin to the world. Unless its path is diverted, the Destined One and Lord Recluse will die in combat with one another. Or
perhaps the Destined One will kill Recluse with his own Omega Bomb. Either way, it will not matter. The blasted Earth and the perils that follow will barely
change."
She looked up, her tone entirely serious.
"I see the mages of the Circle of Thorns, immortal spirits trapped in unwilling flesh, waiting as their bodies die of starvation for there is no
sustenance to be found. I see Silver Mantis weeping over the broken and dying body of Black Scorpion, the loss of her beloved Ernesto the only stimulus strong
enough to snap her back to sanity. I see a world inhabited by restless spirits, for nothing lives there anymore and nothing can. I see Dr. Aeon tracing paths
through time, echoes of past and future events, for only in the end will he see the truth of the beginning. I see the Destined One lifted up on a throne from
which the slings and arrows of a thousand powers assail him out of spite, for his conquest was at the expense of this world. I see death, doom, and damnation,
all tied to DESTINY, and I see a thousand paths taken to stop it, while a thousand more possibilities remain, ever waiting, ever lethal, and every single one
capable of dooming this world forevermore."
She sat back, her audience rapt, before opening her eyes. "That is what I see," she said, standing up and heading out the door. As she did, she felt
them watch her go, felt them considering her words.....and she felt the demonic touch reach into their minds, disputing, dissuading. Telling them that such
events could never be. There was no way.
".....as usual."
You knew the bargain. You accepted your fate. Even as you accept the fate of your world. It will all end in darkness and
fire.
Cassandra scowled as she heard the familiar voice of the silver tongued demon that had approached her years ago. The being she now knew to be a
monster known only as the Envoy of Shadows. Who thought one of the greatest Seers who could derail his planned apocalypse now denied, for her future sight was
forever blocked from use to anyone else.
He forgets that I believe my visions are true. And if he thinks that I cannot do
anything to stop him, he is in dire danger of finding his little joke coming back to bite him.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."