Crystal Lion
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Antumbra - Before the Shadows: Pars 2
The first thing Atroxia saw when she came to the park was a huddled pile of black and purple. "Am I too late?" Atroxia thought in fear. She walked over to the pile and got ready to talk loudly to it. Then the pile unraveled. It turned out to be a slim girl with a chubby face wearing a purple leotard with black patches. She was sleeping beside a large iron ball. Atroxia glanced at the girl's right thigh, but it was pale with no sign of scarring. "Then I'm not too late," the red lion thought and reached out to shake the other girl awake. The girl reacted quickly in her sleep, waking up before Atroxia could put her hand on her. The girl scowled and quickly stood up. Atroxia also stood up.
"Who are you?!" the girl asked angrily. "On second thought, don't tell me, I don't care!"
"Yep, she's still full of bravado," thought Atroxia. "I don't care if you don't want to know either," Atroxia said loudly. "I'm a Lion."
"I just told you I don't care who you are!"
"If you're going to be so rude, why would anyone want to help you?"
"Stop bugging me!"
"I won't go! I came here to-" Atroxia was rudely interrupted by the girl.
"Go away and stuff-" the girl with the purple balaclava was about to swear loudly before Atroxia yelled back at her.
"I'm here to help you, you blasted moron!" the red lion roared. "I have to out-bravado her!" she thought anxiously.
"Is that so?!" the girl said, her dead eyes narrowing in rage.
The two angry women snarled as their foreheads pressed against each other. Pitch black eyes glared into glowing dead purple ones. Atroxia leaned forward and the girl stepped back. Then the girl shoved back, causing Atroxia to stumble backwards. The red lion stood up and strode menacingly towards the girl. When she got close enough, she dropped into a stable stance so that the girl couldn't knock her over easily. Try as she might, the girl couldn't push Atroxia over. "Yeah, I mean what I say," Atroxia said, folding her arms across her chest.
"Then make yourself useful," the girl scowled. "It isn't sunrise yet, but DaVinci's killbots are swarming all over the park, to say nothing of the people supporting him..."
"Shall we take them down together?"
"The divas are doing that," the girl said, still frowning. "Should be able to thin them, though, DaVinci tends to show up later in the day."
"And you sat in the park since last winter?"
"It's not that bad," the girl replied.
"That leotard of yours..."
"Is the enhanced kind, I don't get cold so easily in it," the girl said and gestured to her tall boots as well. "Well, get moving," she said bossily.
Atroxia bowed to her and went into the park.
She met a completely purple robot with its hair in a bun. The robot carried a hammer. "Oh, hello," the robot said calmly. "I suppose you met Demolicious, right?"
Atroxia nodded.
The robot looked surprised. "Was she rude? She can't help being rude."
"Not really," Atroxia replied.
"Why, cat got your tongue, pal?"
"Not at all," said Atroxia. "She asked me to get rid of the killbots swarming the statue."
"You're the first person who came here knowing more or less what's going on," said Maru, as she walked in step with Atroxia.
"Some of it is on the news. Who are you anyway?"
"Oh, pardon me. I'm Maru, one of Demo's Divas. Robots, obviously. Anyhow, this is the first time I didn't hear Demo scold people for being ignorant about the history of Pandora's heart."
"It's simple, Pandora's heart blew up when she sacrificed herself to protect the world."
"That's the gist of it," said Maru. "Oh, look! There are some killbots."
"Allow me," Atroxia pointed to herself then leaped down to face the brown robots. They beeped curiously before she attacked them. They soon became piles of scrap metal. Maru rubbed her eye in surprise.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Atroxia said to the robot. Maru jumped down and the two began fighting lots of killbots.
--------
The sun rose as they continued to fight the almost endless forces of killbots. Another Diva came by to help them. She wore a corset and shorter pants than Maru. During one of their breaks as they sat on the walls of the park, Maru introduced the corseted Diva to Atroxia. "Pal, this is Yon," said Maru.
"My name's Attie," the red lion said. "So tell me about Demolicious."
"She's very reclusive."
"Bossy."
"Brassy voice."
"But she has a strong sense of right, and will use her strength to seek justice."
"Her physical strength, I assume?" Atroxia asked. "She's carrying a wrecking ball last I checked."
The Divas nodded, then chattered to each other. Atroxia saw two figures approaching the main gate. She looked at them. One of the figures was very tall, and the other was dressed in white. "I'll be right back," said the red lion, and she made her way towards the main gate of the park.
When Artisa saw her twin, she exclaimed, "Attie! Mom's worried sick about you! Can you call her and tell her you're fine?"
"But I left a note in your phone!" Atroxia sputtered.
"You know how mom is, sis. Insistent," said Artisa.
"Oh fine," Atroxia rolled her eyes. "Give me a moment," she said and took out her phone to call her mother.
"Atroxia Lion!" Ami shouted into her phone when she heard her younger daughter's voice. "Why did you go to the park in the morning?! You know there's a big fight there!"
"I'm helping out," said Atroxia.
"You're mad," said Ami.
"I mean it, mother. Don't worry too much about me. I'm not going to die. Not so soon, anyway."
Ami began to ask, "What do you mean, not dying? Girl? Girl? Attie?"
Atroxia ended the call with a press of a button. "I told her I'm okay," she said to her twin.
"You had me worried too, Attie. Why did you sneak out here?" Artisa looked concernedly at her twin.
"Well, Demo needs all the help she can get."
"Who's that?" asked Hera.
Atroxia explained, "The girl with long purple hair and a wrecking ball, she wears a leotard and balaclava, and has dead glowy eyes."
"Oh, that one! She looks awkward," said Hera.
"Who looks awkward?" a shrill brassy voice asked.
Hera turned as red as a beet. "Oops..." the giant whimpered.
"Just because I have big feet and a big back end doesn't mean I look awkward, capice?" Demo said as her long purple hair swayed behind her.
Before Hera could explain herself, an elderly man with green and white hair, robotic parts, and an orange eye approached the park. He had a lot of killbots following him. He glared at the women. "Joining the weaklings?" he sneered. Atroxia bristled. "See here, you're quite foolish if you don't want to join the strongest force in this here city. We've got more numbers than you can imagine," said the old man.
"Hey, stripes! They've decided to help me out, not you!" Demo shouted at him.
"We do?" Artisa and Hera said to each other. Atroxia grinned and nodded.
"I'm Luigi DaVinci, not stripes! You're a pathetic culo!"
"Your day will come, old man!"
"I believe it's my own self who will have the last laugh, Demo," Luigi guffawed. "How you got those three idiots to help you defend Pandora's heart when you're so rude, I'd like to know."
"Well, I think the heart should be left alone, and we," Atroxia pointed to her twin and Hera, then to Demo, "Have a common goal with her."
Luigi groaned, slapped his forehead, then said in a threatening voice, "You're still idiots for sticking with weaklings. When I win, I'll make sure you're dealt with, appropriately!"
He then stomped off, grumbling as his robots marched behind him.
"You three sure have strong principles," said Maru, who heard the entire argument.
"Thanks," Hera said seriously. "But if what he said about you being outnumbered is true, we have quite a challenge ahead."
Maru nodded. "That's where you come in, or so I hope," said the purple robot.
"What do we do now?" Hera asked Maru.
"Hold on, I'm getting a message from Yon."
"Who?" Artisa asked the robot.
"Another Diva, pal," Maru replied. "Hm... Yon says the police bots are reporting camera errors all over Super District's Main Street."
"Sabotage!" Demo exclaimed and pressed her hands together. "Darn that DaVinci! He must've done it before he came here!"
"Shall we put those cameras out of commission?" said Atroxia.
"I was about to say that. Come on, whoever you are," said Demo. The two left for Main Street.
Hera and Artisa looked at each other, then at Maru. "Do help us get rid of the killbots," said Maru. She turned back to the park. Artisa and Hera followed her to help out in the park.
--------
Atroxia stared at the rewired camera, then pulled its power supply out after covering the lens. Demo then dropped her wrecking ball on the inactive camera. "So that DaVinci can't rewire it again," she said.
"That's rather extreme."
"Do you have ANY better ideas?" Demo said peevishly. "Unless you think pouring potions in their hatches makes any more sense!"
"Uh, nope."
"Then shut your mouth." said the wrecker as she threw her wrecking ball at another rewired camera.
"Hey, those guys look suspicious," Atroxia said and pointed at some men wearing ski masks and flat caps standing near an electronics shop. Each of the men carried a chainsaw.
"Truck raiders," Demo said. "What are they saying?"
Atroxia strained to hear the men's muttering. "They need some parts for DaVinci's robots," she whispered.
"Let's put them out of action," Demo replied. They jumped down to the road and landed some distance away from the raiders. The red lion pulled out one of her vials, and got ready to uncork it.
"It's a burning death, Demo," she said. "Keep clear of it."
The wrecker nodded and got ready to throw her wrecking ball. "Shall we start?" she asked and stepped forward.
"I'm right behind you," said Atroxia. The wrecker then dashed forward and shouted an insult at the raiders.
"Get her!" the biggest of the raiders shouted. Three of the raiders rushed at Demo, who threw her wrecking ball at them. They fell back and clattered into the other raiders. One of the raiders dropped their chainsaw, which landed near Atroxia. She picked it up and held it like a bat. Then she changed her mind and dabbed the poison on its teeth. She grinned broadly and jumped into the fray.
--------
Maru, Hera and Artisa were making headway in getting rid of the killbots, until they heard someone shouting for help. The man who shouted for help was wearing a police uniform. Maru realized that he was being attacked by hacked police bots. She and Yon raised their hammers to call down lightning, which struck the hacked police bots. They fell apart and the policeman ran away. Artisa nudged Hera and pointed to another group of patrolmen being harrassed by police bots.
Hera began singing very badly, and the other hacked police bots beeped in annoyance. As they approached the blue giant, her singing became so bad that the robots fizzled in rage and fell to pieces. The remaining patrolmen ran for their lives, mostly from Hera's bad singing.
--------
Artisa met with her twin an hour later at the park's main gate. Atroxia was covered in scratches and her bodysuit looked worn out. "Just who did you fight with?" Artisa fussed.
"Truck raiders with chainsaws," her twin replied. Demo talked to Maru and Yon some distance away from the twins.
"The giant's singing sucks, don't even ask her to open her mouth, you'll ask her to shut up in ten seconds," Maru chattered to Demo.
"That bad?"
"Ask Yon, she witnessed the bad singing too."
The aforementioned giant tried to put a plaster on Atroxia's big nose, but the red lion turned her head away each time. "Attie, hold still," said Hera, as she dabbed antibacterial cream on Atroxia's scratches.
"For bleu's sake, don't put a plaster on my nose," said the red lion. "I'll look like a joke," she continued, suddenly thinking of Demo laughing her head off.
"I thought you wouldn't care too much," said Artisa. "Did you actually make friends with Demolicious?"
"I can't say yes, but she hasn't been terribly rude to me either."
"Weird," Artisa remarked and glanced at Hera. "Word has it that she's a very rude girl."
"I'm done now. You sure you don't want a plaster, Attie?" Hera asked. Atroxia shook her head.
"I'll take a breather," the red lion said. "Just... keep going, alright?"
The other two nodded, then followed Yon and Demo to battle more killbots. Maru was still standing by the main gate.
Maru looked Atroxia up and down, then said in concern, "Attie, do you think you can fight with all those scratches on you?"
"Well, I could," Atroxia replied.
"You're not a robot. Fleshy things tend to get hurt easily."
The red lion shrugged, "I'll take five, and be right as rain later."
"What will you do in the meantime?"
"I'll keep an eye out for more killbots, or other enemies," said Atroxia, and she led Maru to a wooded section of the park. Maru looked up at the trees.
"I'm sure you can handle yourself, but, be careful, okay?" Maru looked worried.
"Don't worry, Maru. I'll be fine."
"I guess..." Maru turned and walked away.
Atroxia climbed up a rather tall tree tree, then lay flat against one of its stout branches. Moments later, she saw the old man with green and white hair walk by. He seemed to be talking to himself at first. "I really could laugh, my helpers are pretty much useless."
"Beepity?" said a tiny floating object near Luigi's shoulder.
"They're useless for anything except grunt work, if you ask me."
"Bop beep?"
"The main thing that helped me get so far in this plan for the malachite was the sheer number of fools who believed my words," Luigi said to the robot. "I can't believe how easy it was to convince all those youths to help me out."
"Beep?" the little robot asked curiously.
"Just a few choice words, a sad story, and three-quarters of Super District's eating out of my hand. I can banish that pathetic Demolicious once and for all, and get that heart, if this keeps up."
"Bop?"
"And I don't even have to keep my promises to my... helpers... if I choose my words right. Just put them off. Little fools. They think girl leaders have cooties at this age? Ha ha ha! It's so easy to compel kids these days, it's almost a pity."
"Beep! Beep beep beep!" the small robot appeared to shake with laughter.
Atroxia heard everything that Luigi said, even the insulting thoughts he had of his supporters. When he walked off, still guffawing, she slithered down the tree and scuttled off in Artisa's direction.
She saw her twin, Hera, the Divas, and Demo fighting off a big horde of killbots. The red lion sent a warning thought to her sister, then flung a vial of acid into the center of the horde. Fizz, pop, bang! The robots beeped frantically as they felt the acid splash onto their frames. "Maru, Yon, step aside!" Demo ordered the Divas. Some of the killbots fell over, and the rest were taken out by the women throwing all sorts of attacks at them.
"Spread out!" Hera suggested to the purple wrecker. "We'll be less of a target if we don't stick so close," the giant said.
The women then moved so that they could still see each other, but weren't literally bumping against each other.
BANG! An orange and gray tank suddenly bashed through one of the walls of the park. To make matters worse, it was dangerously near to where Maru was fighting by herself.
"MARU!" Yon screamed, as a laser on the tank aimed right at the scruffy Diva. The driver of the tank grinned nastily, and fired.
To be continued...
Glossary.
Culo: (Italian) Back end. It also refers to a brazen cheeky person.
< Message edited by Crystal Lion -- 1/8/2013 23:22:07 >
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