I wrote a little snippet I thought you guys might enjoy reading. I hope you guys don't mind the ping.
The lab is a bit more chaotic than usual wires and cables strewn everywhere leading up to a warp gate swirling with blue energy that looks man made, a bunch of monitors are displaying information at a rapid speed some physical some holographic.
Theres two women in the room, one in a heavy coat and snow pants a duffle bag thrown over her shoulder and a large sturdy metal case tucked under her arm like a football. This is Kira.
The other one is wearing some weird mix of coveralls and medical scrubs that's the most obnoxious shade of blue you've ever seen and covered in fluorescent rubber duckies with a lab coat on top. She also looks like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in a week and a half and had downed three bowls of battery acid spaghetti then chased it with military grade stimulants. This is Hamada.
Kira pushes up her glasses to her forehead to side eye Hamada. "You sure this is a good idea genius? Have you even tested that thing yet?"
"yeah yeah yeah yeah, 's all good been tested already it works!" Hamada's eyes are flicking over the screen readouts with frantic energy, "ydont need any'a that stuff 's fine! 110% safe!! Thanks for the idea an' eco by the way!"
Kira sighs and rubs her face apprehensively, getting the feeling something's about to go very wrong very quickly, "You locked the exits didn't you?"
"Yep!"
"Sonnova bitch, only way out is through then," Kira makes a face and points at Hamada with her free hand, "If something goes tits up I'm blaming you," Kira flips down her glasses and steps forward towards the warp gate.
Kira steps through the warp gate and after a moment finds herself back in a place she hadn't seen in years, "oh great this hellhole again"
A low thrum and a growl is all the warning Kira needs to lunge out of the way of a dark eco blast and a snarling creature, the dark eco blast scorches the warp gate knocking it loose and sending it offline with the creature careening into it completely knocking the it rest of the way off and tumbling over the edge of the platform with a screech.
"Cycle damnit," Kira grumbles mid swing sending another creature fling with her case, "Gonna need to come back and fix that if I wanna get home, I doubt I'd be able to get back to Tempest on foot since y'know punched a hole and in the space time continuum and hopped universes to get there in the first place," Kira twists and pivots weaving around the annoying creatures and dark eco blasts.
"I'm guessing you suckers are those 'metalheads' the dark warrior program was all about huh," Kira tasks her eyes scanning over the surroundings counting the numbers of her opponents and scanning for an exit she spots one up above on a higher platform about 25 feet up.
Getting a running start Kira uses one of the Metalheads as a springboard with a little extra boost from some Blue Eco digs in her heels into the dents and divots in the wall to vault up to the platform grabbing it with one hand and hauling herself up.
Kira jogs through the corridors away from the group of Metalheads using the breathing room to secure the metal case to her duffle bag and then resting the pair of items over her back.
"Gotta find a weapon, only got 50 bullets on me I shouldn't waste them," Kira mutters under her breath scanning the halls until she lays on a corpse in red metal armor.
Well corpse or armor is a bit of an overstatement, its mostly rotted already limbs either missing entirely the armor turned into twisted jagged scraps. The bones that are visible show damage from teeth.
But that's not what is the focus of Kira's attention, just a few feet away from the corpse was a damaged gun of some sort.
Picking it up information pops into Kira's head, "A morph gun eh? Uses eco instead of metal bullets and can switch between eco types and type of fire, very versatile," Kira grins pleased to have found a weapon it should still fire just fine but with the damage looks like the eco and fire switching is on hold for now.
Side eying another Metalhead who pokes it head out Kira raises the gun and siphoning a little yellow eco out of her reservoir of dark eco feeding it into the gun and pulling the trigger, then grinning as with a crack a flash of eco the Metalhead drops dead one of it's eyes a burnt out crater the skull gem popping out and skittering across the floor.
Kira winces as she picks up on the distant sounds of snarling and gunfire as she hops across the rooftops of this weird city that already looks like a shithole trailing blue lightweight courtesy of blue eco.
"DADDY!" the voice of a young child rings out through the air, Kira pivots on a dime and beelines for the source.
"HANG ON HELPS COMING!" Kira calls out sprinting across the rooftops hoping on getting to the child in time.
With a grunt of effort Kira leaps from the rooftop using the momentum and gravity to slam into the large Metalhead with a snarl firing off a few shorts point blank with a snarl, "Paws off the kid!" the metalhead roars in pain and staggers back Kira can feel the movement of dark eco through it's body and presses the advantage dropping the gun momentarily.
"Oh no you fucking don't!" Kira headbutts the metalhead and grabs its blaster arm with both hands while vaulting onto its back. Kira twists the blaster arm backwards one hand grabbing the blaster the other grabbing the shoulder her nails digging into flesh.
With a grunt of exertion and reinforcing her body with red eco Kira rips the Metalhead's arm off at the shoulder tossing the offending limb to the side like garbage and wrapping her hands around the metalhead's jaws and twisting.
The metalhead scrabbles at Kira's arms with its one remaining one the tendons, ligaments bones and muscles in it's neck beginning to creak and crack under the force until with a disgusting snap the metalhead goes limp it's skull gem popping free and falling to the ground.
Kira looks over to the kid, it's a little girl maybe only about 5 or 6 years old with pale skin deep purple hair and bright blue eyes, she's clutching a stuffed animal that looks like some weird bright yellow cat to her chest like a lifeline, her dress and herself covering in dust an mud and Kira can see a few scratches on her face.
Poor kid looks terrified.
"Hey there kiddo I'm sorry if I scared you, you alright?" Kira makes a point of softening her voice as she talks to the kid while crouching down to be eye level.
"Hey hey hey, it's okay it's okay I'm not gonna hurt you, yeah I know I look scary but I'm not gonna hurt you," Kira adds taking off her glasses as she fully sits down the little girl sniffles and holds her stuffed animal closer.
"it's the antlers isn't it? The antlers and the glasses make me look spooky don't they my teeth don't help much either huh" Kira gestures as she starts to ramble.
"I look way more like a cryptid than a person when I'm wearing my glasses, those these are some pretty cool glasses dont'cha think, wanna try them on kid?" Kira gently tosses her glasses in the kid's direction making sure to telegraph her movement and the glasses come to a stop a few feet away from the little girl.
"Got those custom made, actually their moisture resistant which means they don't fog up even with a stream from a hot mug of tea or coffee, they've got this feature that with bright light they darken like sunglasses," Kira pauses to give the kid a look but making a point to have her expression be as goofy as possible, the kid's not trembling as much and isn't sniffing as much.
"... you didn't get a word of that huh kid?" Kira pauses and drops her face into her hands with a groan, while Kira is facepalming the little girl tentatively picks up Kira's glasses and puts them on, they're a bit comically oversized for such a small person.
"uuuugh I cant believe I forgot to introduce myself Má would hit me with la chancla for that, hi my name is Kira I'm a scout from Tempest, It's very nice to meet you, can I ask for what your name is and the name of your brave friend?" Kira extends her hand to shake.
"I'm Sonya, this is Mr. Huggles," Sonya extends Mr. Huggles' paw which Kira gently takes in her fingers and shakes.
"It's very nice to meet you Sonya and Mr. Huggles, I see that your both a little scraped up would it be okay if I gave you both some medicine?" Sonya nods shyly.
"Yes please," She asks.
"Alright then let me just get out my medicine and I'll get to work," Kira fishes through her duffle bag in search of her medical supplies and sewing/embroidery kit.
Kira gently rinses out Sonya's scrapes with some water before gently applies some gel with green eco in it then applying a bandage to each scrape.
"Most nurses I know give out candy to such good patients Sonya but I'm afraid I don't have any on me right now," Kira pulls out a small scarf she had woven herself and embroidered, "but I do have this pretty scarf I made, it's pretty and keeps you warm,"
Kira wraps the scarf around Sonya's neck making sure it's snug but not too tight.
"There we go a cute scarf for a cute kid, now onto Mr Huggles," Kira selects some thread that's a similar shade of yellow and slowly stitches up Mr. Huggles humming a tune her Ama always does.
"And done, Mr. Huggles is all better now, and of course he gets a reward for being a good patient," Kira pulls out an embroidered handkerchief with a flourish and ties it around Mr. Huggles neck then makes a ta-da motion with her hands while Sonya giggles with delight and scoops Mr. Huggles up.
"Thank you,"
"Your quite welcome," Kira notes to herself that the snarling and shooting has stopped and she can hear someone calling out Sonya's name likely her dad, Kira takes the time to pack her supplies back up and hook the morph gun to the belt holster she stole off another dead guy.
"Now I think it's about time I got you home, would you like me to carry you back to your dad?"
"Yes please!" Kira smiles and shifts to a kneel.
"Alright then Sonya I'll take you back to your dad, upsie daisy," Kira extends out her arms for a hug and Sonya gets close allowing Kira to carefully pick her up.
"What's your dad like Sonya?"
"He makes pots!"
"Oh that's interesting I've tried my hand at pottery myself but nothing I made ever came out right. Back home it is incredibly tricky to get clay to dry enough to where it can be put in a kiln," Kira makes a face as she recalls how she struggled endlessly to make something halfway decent. How only parts of the pot would get fired or they'd collapse in the kiln.
"I only made one bowl before I threw in the towel and gave up. One of the ugliest bowls I've ever seen and yet Ama always has it on the mantle above the fireplace," Kira chuckles to herself as she remembers how mortified she was to see that ugly bowl on the mantle for the first time.
"Who's Ama?"
"Oh, since I have two moms I-"
"You have two moms?!" Sonya is star struck, "I thought you could only have one?"
"Nope, while I'm fairly certain most people have one mom and one dad that's not the same for everyone, some people only have a mom and no dad some people are the opposite one dad and no mom, some have more than two parents having three or four, I just happen to have two moms and no dad," Kira shrugs.
"My Má is a nurse she's taught me a bit of first aid so I can help out when someone is hurt, that's how I was able to patch you and Mr. Huggles up."
"My Ama is a history teacher with a hobby of disc shooting, she's the one who taught me how to shoot,"
"My mom is a farmer,"
"That's impressive,"
"SONYA!" Kira turns to see an older man with purple hair just like Sonya tearing down the street wearing an apron stained with clay over his regular clothes a man in uniform with reddish brown hair in braids and facial tattoos.
"DADDY," Sonya starts reaching out for her dad and Kira picks up speed to meet the man and lets him take Sonya into his arms. Kira steps back only for the tattooed man to grab her by the shoulder and drag her away which Kira lets him do.
He shoves Kira into a wall and puts a knife to her throat.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Kira a scout of Tempest and a survivor of the Dark Warrior Program I'm here to help," Kira raises her hands in surrender.
"Am I supposed to believe you?" the man growls pressing the knife a little harder into her neck.
"You believing me or not isn't going to change the fact that I'm going to do what I can to help, So you could get the knife away from my throat" She shrugs.
"I do have my legal identification on me, it probably won't register since Tempest is pretty far away and pretty remote so there's that. I could have chosen to let that Metalhead kill Sonya but I chose to kill it before that could happen," Kira starts putting her fingers down as she starts listing off reasons why this guy could ease up with the knife.
"I also took the time to clean and tend to her wounds, repair her stuffie Mr. Huggles, keep talking to her and get her mind off the fact that she almost died, make an active effort to be less intimidating and personally carried her back to her father to make sure she made back to her family safely,"
"But if you want more practical and logical reasons if I don't help out that would be breaking the oath I swore when I became a scout and would cost me my job,"
"What oath?"
"As a scout of Tempest I swear upon my honor and soul to be a bastion of safety for the innocent, to shelter all from the storms and dangers of the world no matter what banner they gather under," Kira recites the oath with an air of solemnity.
The man makes a face weighing his options before he sighs, "you better uphold that oath girlie or else they'll be consequences, I'm Torn the Captain of the Freedom League," Torn sheaths his knife and hold out a hand.
I have been aggressively procrastinating on everything I need to do because my brain decided that it was time to finish off Torn. Maybe now I can talk myself into doing my more time sensitive tasks.
The amount of effort I put into the background is frankly embarrassing; there is a fully fledged Baron Praxis behind that freaking light.
