Season content notes: violence, injury
“Hey, mister. Are you okay?”
That voice. A child’s voice. Something about it felt…familiar…but he couldn’t place it. He rolled to sit up and rubbed his forehead, wishing his thoughts would clear. “I will be. With time.” He was still on the verge of breaking into maniacal laughter, but managed to keep it inside for now.
The child in ragged clothes looked him up and down skeptically. “You got anywhere to go, mister? Ain’t really safe back here.”
The one the team offered to call Mentor frowned. “I had some friends, but I don’t know where they are right now.”
“That’s tough. I don’t know where my friends are neither.” The kid looked him up and down. “You who I think you are?”
“Depends on who you think I am.” Shit, the kid had probably seen him around the courtyard. He wasn’t going to lie about it, but the kid didn’t have his reins either. No one did now, thanks to Sword and Heals.
The kid chewed her lip a minute, then nodded. The kid wasn’t a fool. She wouldn’t survived on the street even this short a time if she was. But she figured that if the big boss man’s lieutenant was giddy enough to shit himself at the castle being blown up, the lieutenant probably wasn’t all that loyal to the boss man after all. And the guy was tough enough he could keep the nastier assholes off of the kid. “Alright mister. Stick with me a while and I’ll show you the ropes around here. First thing, we need to get you some different clothes. Maybe a hat.”
Mentor nodded. “And then a phone. Some way to contact my friends.”
The kid looked sceptical. “Phones are expensive. And you need ID and shit to buy them.” She started walking down the alley and waved for the man to follow. “Give me a few days and we’ll be able to get you a library card, though. Do your friends have email?”
Blade scrolled through social media on one of the magical smartphones his suit produced. Even with the terrible reception here, he was about to check updates several times a day. An alert notification went off from one of his tagged searches keeping an eye on MourningDagger’s castle. He switched to it immediately.
Behind the shield the team had trapped MourningDagger in, the castle’s heart billowed out virulent purple smoke and several crumbling towers burned with teal and black fire. He backed up the video until the castle became whole again. And watched it explode. His eyes went wide and he ran over to where Mobb rested on the couch. “Guys! Guys you need to see this!”
They gathered quickly and hunched around the small screen. “Is that…” “Oh my god.” “Are you seeing this?!”
Once the commotion died down, Astaroth asked, “Mobb, how’s your foot?”
“I can walk on it okay, why?”
“We need to go there. We need to see this in person.”
Quickmoon nodded. “Absolutely.” The team suited up in a few gold-washed seconds and teleported just outside the shield leading to the castle entrance. Several kinds of monstrous troops stood guard in the courtyard, though the damage hadn’t reached the entrance. The blackish purple smoke curled up from several towers farther back. No words needed between them, the team circled the entire horned structure without crossing the shield boundary. As they reached the back, the true magnitude of the destruction became clear.
Flames in various colors still flickered atop piles of rubble that had once been walls. Pieces of monsters lay strewn through the rubble, smoldering. Heals swallowed bile. Really, though, it was time MourningDagger got a taste of his own medicine. The only question in everyone’s mind was how, and who?
Of course, they weren’t out there long when MourningDagger himself came charging out to confront them. “You fools! You think this will stop me? This is a set back! A momentary annoyance! You cannot stop me, you can only delay the inevitable!”
Guns snorted. “Is it me, or does he seem pissier than usual?”
Frontman laughed. “Big baby lost some toys and is throwing a tantrum.”
By then Speed had finished a survey around the whole castle. “This place is wrecked. And there’s a huge hole in the back courtyard.”
“Let’s take a look,” Guns said, following Speed back the way she’d come. The rest of the team followed Speed’s lead, eager to see the full extent of the damage. MourningDagger enraged screams only got louder as they ignored him.
A perfectly circular crater sat in the middle of what might have once been walls. Only foundation stones were left. The rest of the back courtyard glittered with purple and teal sparks, and green lightning crackled through the shimmering dust as it settled in the crater.
“Damn,” Guns said. “That looks like a mortar crew went to town or something.” The others, not used to destruction on that level, could only stare in shock.
“I wonder what caused it,” Sword finally said, speaking very quietly.
Speed nodded, just as quietly, “Maybe this is more magic shit. Either way, he thinks we did it, and that’s fine.”
From behind them came a whisper, “Hey! Hey heroes!”
Heals turned to the voice and saw a child, maybe 10 or 12 years old. “Kid, you shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe.”
“It’s safe enough with that force field in place,” the child said, “But that’s not important. You gotta come. Mister needs to talk to ya.”
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