With Delmar gone the room sank into quiet discontent and soon after the heated discussion resumed. Shrapnel was annoyed. Even if what Delmar said was true it was unwise to reveal your hand all at once like that. Better test the water and build alliances before accusing society's most powerful member of sacrificing everyone else for his own survival. Once you get thrown out there is nothing you can do about it. Reed excused himself and went after the ice shifter, leaving Shrapnel in front of the council with the three psychics and the human. Shrapnel sighed inwards. He guessed this was the alliances Delmar had chosen, and it was up to them to salvage this, betrayal from Gravity or not. Shrapnel's eyes quietly observed each of the council members, trying to assess where they stood on the matter and how they could be swayed. "Before we turn the city into a battleground," Dawson's voice suddenly cut through the din, "you should evacuate the human population." Everybody's head turned to
Dawson had known these were demons, he had seen the demon forms and been subject to their inhumane reasoning. But nothing could have prepared him for the absolute alien feeling of being one. The rage, the violence. This was what he had to become if he wanted to survive. He wasn't sure it was worth it. "Dawson?" He could hear Shrapnel's voice from the hallway. The shifter must have heard him shouting, or Reed had told him what happened. Either way Dawson didn't feel like answering. Instead he pulled the blanket tighter around himself. "Dawson?" Shrapnel entered the bedroom. His flame cast a faint purple light across the room. Somehow he looked even more frightening than he had done when he came rushing at him in demon form. "Did something happen?" He could not tell him. He could not. Owen was a demon too, who knows what he would do to Delmar if he found out. Even if Dawson didn't need him anymore Delmar was the best shot at saving the world. "I don't want to talk about it." Dawson
The shelves in this part of the library had been emptied of books and arranged into compartments. In every compartment there were some sort of animal beds; bird perches on the top shelves, then beds for smaller animals like cats and rabbits, and on the bottom shelf large dog beds. The bookshelf on the other side held personal affects; phones, hair combes, coffee mugs and the odd clothing item. There even was a potted plant. Every odd shelf someone had hung a curtain across the aisle, allowing at least some privacy between bookcases. Umbani pushed away the curtain in front of her and barely avoided stepping on the tail of the dog sitting behind it. "I'm so sorry!" Umbani excused herself. The dog just grunted. Behind the next curtain she could hear the voice of the human. Umbani took a deep breath, she wasn't at all sure the human would want to see her, after all last time they saw each other she was incredibly rude. Not on purpose, but that was no excuse. She slowly let the breath
Dawson struggled through the underbrush and loose rocks toward the crash site. He had been doing fine. He had shifted back as soon as Owen caught up with them. No blackout, no nothing. And even if he did not have anything to eat he was pretty sure he would have made it back to camp without passing out. But that was before Owen decided to throw him off a demon mid-flight. Believing he was about to die he had shifted again. A pure instinctual panic shift. Now he didn't dare shift back, because then he would surely pass out. Alone. In the forest. Not knowing if Owen was dead or alive. "Damn you, Owen Hollis." he murmured to himself. Not before long he reached the clearing. Fine dirt particles still sailed around in the air and uprooted trees littered the ground. Among it all lay the monstrous shape of Life, sluggishly twisting its broken limbs. Dawson could feel himself smiling. It wasn't exactly a happy smile. If somehow the past Dawson had been able to see that smile he would have
The tunnel under the lab was dark, the only light source they had was Shrapnel's purple sulphur flame, but Dawson's eyes adapted quickly. It was a narrow square tunnel, barely more than a meter wide. Dawson could hear Shrapnel make that irritated sucking sound next to him. “Stay out of the fight Dawson.” “Owen…” “I mean it.” “I wasn't going to protest.” Dawson sighed. "I was going to tell you not to wait for me, you have a better chance of catching her if you run at full speed." Shrapnel kissed his forehead and then started running. Dawson followed the best he could, but he had no way of keeping up with a shifter's speed and endurance in an unobstructed environment like this. Soon he was left chasing after the disappearing purple light of Shrapnel's flame. --- It wasn't long before Shrapnel spotted the pale artificial light of Life's electric lantern. Life was holding a quick pace, but she wasn't running, and she hadn't noticed him yet. Shrapnel started yelling, intending to call
The first level of Life's hideout looked like a mix of a medical clinic and a gun workshop where the workshop parts had been added on top of the clinic. They came across a few boxes of half-finished guns as well as stolen silver bullet parts. "Do you think the guns came from here?" Dawson asked. "No. It doesn't make sense with automatic fire on a silvergun." Shrapnel said. But most probably some of the rebels were armed with these homemade silver guns as well. After looking around they found the stair to the cellar behind a door with a sign that said "Private". Below the stairs was a windowless room, to begin with only faintly illuminated by Shrapnel's purple flames. Then they found the power switch and the room was bathed in the stark sterile light of fluorescent lamps. Dawson was a bit surprised there was electricity in this old abandoned town. Beside him Shrapnel made a displeased sound, he had his own bad premonitions, and the presence of electricity did nothing to help relieve
Dawson watched the titans battle transfixed. Sure, he had been to a show fight once, but this was something else. This was real. He almost did not notice when Shrapnel left his side and started walking determined towards the edge of the forest.
“Hey, where are you going!?” Dawson almost had to run to keep up with him. Damn those long legs, they had gotten him into so much trouble.
“Something is wrong, there are no birds.” Shrapnel said. “I need to get into town.”
Shrapnel undid the cape of his uniform and let it fall on the forest floor. With it came all of the ribbons and decorations that marked him as a
Coen yawned as he climbed up the stairs of the palisade. Yesterday had been eventful, a lot of smaller squabbles as well as trying to get clear directions from Wilfred, the rebel leader had become more and more erratic since the death of Edgar. And then in the middle of it all Delmar, the ice shifter responsible for Edgar’s death, showed up. Well at least according to Life. But no one else had seen him, so either she made it up or he had already escaped through one of the tunnels.
One of the lookouts on the wall poured him a cup of coffee which he gratefully accepted. He balanced the cup on top of the wall while he dug in his coat to f
Let's go have ourselves a war by Jedni, literature
Literature
Let's go have ourselves a war
It was the third morning in a row that he woke up with a nosebleed and a splitting headache. The first time he just attributed it to the hangover, Reed had tricked him into drinking a lot. But now he wasn’t so sure. When the nosebleed had finally stopped he sank down on the sofa. He hadn't turned on the apartment lights on account of the headache, but the early morning sun gave the place a cold grey light.
Shrapnel still hadn’t returned. He had barely been home since the explosion, and then only to sleep and change clothes. But Dawson couldn't blame him, there had after all been a devastating rebel attack and he was a general in
Ramsey brought Rot to one of his favourite cafes down by the waterfront. It wasn't a very big place, just a few tables, and the serving was all done by robots, though there worked one human behind the counter who greeted customers and took orders. Ramsey ordered some pastry while rot sat down by one of the tables. He put down a brown cake in front of rot.
“It's a date cake.” he smiled blushing. “I thought I could be the one giving a you date instead.” Then he scratched the back of his head. “But if you don't like it we could switch of course.”
“Haha, no I appreciate it!” Rot answered smiling.