Ranger
Chapter 157: Gunsmoke
By Wanderer D
"Angel's down!"
Sunset didn't even hesitate. The blood around flared into a maelstrom around her as she jumped off the building. It was instinct.
All thoughts of blood-bonded friends who she could torture or pleasure at will; all thoughts of the Path of Madness, her powers, the gems, what the Siren's relationship with forbidden magic was… it all disappeared in an instant.
On the way down she realized she should probably shoot her hook, try to swing or she'd be a splatter of blood herself, but… she wasn't falling. She was gliding.
Too preoccupied to really care, she angled her body so that she moved towards the building she had ordered Angel and Trojan to hide at.
It was a reality of war… especially this war… that good people, or aliens died. She knew that on an instinctual level even. But even that knowledge wasn't enough to remain calm. It was Mox all over again.
Her bond with her companions was something she treasured, the one thing keeping her away from the madness and despair… the one thing validating her toning down her desire for power. Maybe she had made an error… maybe she needed the power.
Maybe she needed to take more risks with her magic. Maybe she should use the other spells she had learned now that her magic was stronger after that brief symbiotic moment with the Element of Magic.
If she had kept the Element… she could have just blasted the Hunter from anywhere. She could have summoned Blood Golems from the fallen ADVENT soldiers. Made the Hunter's blood boil until it cooked her from the inside out. She could have forced the ADVENT soldiers and aliens to fight for her by controlling them from within.
She would have made them suffer before taking their lives away for the audacity of attacking her friends!
Buildings rushed past her, and she could hear Elena swear in surprise at whatever was happening. Sunset ignored her for now, eyes narrowing as her thoughts turned darker by the second, but soon enough the ground was coming close and Sunset shifted her body so that she landed already running. She didn't have time to think.
She didn't have time to hate. Not right now.
She felt a tug behind her, but she ignored it, pushing forward, barely registering a large splash, but she didn't let either thing stop her.
Flashes of her Mox, lying still against the cavern wall flooded her mind. Thoughts of her inability to move, her magic draining her as it healed her but not him.
She wasn't going to lose another one of her friends! Not again! Not when she had blood magic. Not when she had saved her Jane! She would do it again! Who cared about the Blood Bind? If it saved their lives it couldn't be bad, could it?"
Sunset dashed past Annette and Fridge, who called for her. She ignored them, knowing that they'd follow after her. She didn't have time to waste on explanations. Her Angel was in danger, and she'd be damned if she let death take her.
Just as she reached the last few feet to the building, she shot her grappling hook, and was pulled off the floor, flying over the edge of the roof and landing into a roll.
In a second she was up and hurried over to where she could see Jane leaning over two bodies, one of them with a long, copper-colored tail.
Jane's unnamed GREMLIN hovered over them, applying spray and injecting them.
"Angel!"
Jane held her back. "Sunset! Sunset, look at me."
Sunset gulped, then turned to face her Jane. She shook her head. No… not her Jane. Jane. Jane the specialist, who looked at her all seriousness before she slowly smiled. "She'll make it."
Sunset staggered, dropping to her knees, completely exhausted. Her senses slowly told her that it was true. Angel was breathing, her heartbeat erratic, but slowly calming down. "I was so sure…"
"It's okay," Jane said as they approached. "They're both going to make it. Trojan got real lucky… the wall he was behind took the brunt of the attack, Angel saved his ass from being double-tapped and I managed to get to him and stabilize him."
Sunset nodded as Jane went to check on the downed Dragon member. She kneeled next to the viper, biting her lip. "Oh Angel…"
"She managed to dodge the direct hit," Jane explained, looking over her shoulder. "Something got in the way of the shot too, and it was all the warning she needed to react." She sighed. "A human would have never been so fast."
"What did the Hunter shoot then?"
"It was one of our seekers," Sashssa said into the comms. "We saw where the Hunter was aiming and moved one of the cloaked units to block the shot… we didn't expect it to go through."
"It might be a blessing still," Vikass' voice added. "The Hunter probably never saw what she hit, as you killed her just as she was taking her shot."
"We need to make sure to recover the pieces of the Seeker. We don't want ADVENT to know what's going on."
"Yeah," Sunset said, rubbing her nose. "Yeah. We'll get on it. Our part of the mission is done."
"Noted. I'm glad you were able to kill that bitch before more damage was done… we're all alive, unlike Eagle." Jane nodded. She then looked from the building where the Hunter had died to Sunset, and back. "How the hell did you get here so quickly?"
Sunset blinked. "I… I don't know."
"You flew," Elena said as she pulled herself over the edge of the building, followed shortly after by Fridge and Annette.
"I don't have wings."
Elena rolled her eyes. "You did after you killed the Hunter. Bat-like."
"Or demon-like?" Annette asked, looking at Sunset straight in the eye.
"I didn't transform!" Sunset snapped. "I felt a tug but… if I had grown wings," she argued turning around and pointing at her back with her thumb, "I'd have ripped my armor off!"
"She has a point," Fridge said, earning looks from the others.
"Look, I don't know what happened, alright?" Sunset said, "I just knew Angel was down and I needed to get here fast. Sonata said something about giving me a gift. Maybe that was it."
There was silence from the others.
"Who's Sonata?" Fridge asked.
"The Hunter," Annette replied, "before she was converted into that thing, her name was Sonata Dusk."
"I see."
"Anyway," Sunset said, pulling up her comm. "Skyranger, this is Menace. We have two injured, but our mission was a success. We have taken down the Hunter."
"Roger that, Blood Witch," Rainbow Dash's voice reached them all. "Heading over to pick you up."
"What's the plan now?" Annette asked, leaning her gun on her shoulder.
"We get the Seeker pieces, and take them, Angel and Trojan to the old XCOM base. Then the rest of us will be on standby in case Dragon needs help."
Sunset clapped her hands. "Alright people, only Jane needs to be up here right now. Let's clean up and get the fuck out of Dodge."
o.0.o End Chapter 157 o.0.o
Yay!
Snek waifuAngel is going to make it!give that poor seeker a medal! it saved angels tail!
Good job moving that seeker guys, you have earned quite a few rep points with XCOM for that one.
Sunsets her with her squad is not good. She is heading down the road to hell and paving it with all her good intentions.
Seeing her falter like this is painful. Luna might need to take a more direct hoof before she does something she will not be able to forgive herself for, rainbow lazer or no.
I find myself worried that the element of magic, in it's attempt to heal her, might not have had time to finish the job. Her 'need' for her friends now is obsessive. It's understandable, yes, but dark and dangerous.
Seeker has been promoted to Second best Waifu... and Best Wingman... Snek lives!
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She's most likely becoming either a new siren or some other mythological monster, sooner or later. And XCOM is going to use her even with wings of blood or whatever she gets. Too much power to wasted in such a war.
Hell, she's already an alien romantically involved (you can try and pry this ship from my cold, dead fingers!!! ) with another alien, what's she becoming weirder still compared to that?
Even so, snek waifu is go. And wanderer is an ass for making us suffer a whole week for this answer
I didn't think of the seekers blocking shots though, nice catch there.
Yes, Angel lives.
If the gift is Sunset sprouting wings, that can be a valuable advantage for mobility and also to counter the Archon King's Icarus Drop. Although seeing how her sanity took a dive, the price might be too high.
Gunsmoke... I really need to finish reading that.
The snek is safe, nothing else matters including such little things as potential demon transformations.
Ok, real talk. On the one hand, it's nice to see that Trojan and Angel are gonna make it.(Although Flutters is still gonna kill Sunset when she finds out.) On the other hand, Sunny just lost a little more of her mind there. And the scary thing about that is that her whole internal monologue just proved that she has a critical weakness: She goes extra nuts when one of her team gets hurt or killed. That's not something that should be taken lightly in her position, and I sincerely hope that the Commander and Central realize that.
Because if Sunny slips any further, it's time to start thinking of countermeasures.
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It's good, all I can say.
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78.media.tumblr.com/ecc934cfc145adf2cb0012c28cd7183a/tumblr_o2zdlzNMIc1toao3zo1_500.gif
"grappling hook, and was pulled of the floor"
"grappling hook, and was pulled off the floor"?
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Stupid sexy smug snek.
That was as tantalizingly short as it was satisfying to read. You consistently manage to leave us on the edge of our seats, even after so long. Well done.
I'm expecting Sunset to go full "Carrie" one of these days. Any force that manages to seriously harm one of her friends is going to end up splattered. I do mean they will have to use sponges to retrieve the remains.
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It's good
Well that was a bullet narrowly dodged. Deus ex seeker machina.
That was a closer call!
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Well if we're going for something mythological, my guess would be a Fury out of hades. we'd even keep the Grecian theme going!
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By the gods the smug levels are over nine thousand!!!
ohthankgodAngel'salright
9105304 Fixed! Thank you!
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You're welcome!
9105752
I saw this update in my feed (I've been w/o internet for about 2 weeks) and what went through my mind was, "Holy crap, a Gunsmoke update!? It's been forever; yes please!" And then I was taken to Ranger... Brain playing tricks on me
P.S. You're amazing! Keep up the fantabular work!
9105043
A sacrifice like that deserves the metal of honor.
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not certain but I think she already did that E.G. "tug..splash"
The witch soars on bloody wings...
In any case, one of those rare examples where invisible walls are actually helpful. This mission couldn't have gone much better for Menace.
Now there's just the matter of how Dragon's doing...
Sunset, you better start to realize that the Blood Magic is starting to corrupt you. Nothing good ever comes out when good characters start to get corrupted in stories like this; somewhere down the line, someone is going to get hurt, Sunset, and you'll regret it.
Also, I've used this quote many times on Fimfiction, and I'll use it again:
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster" — Friedrich Nietzsche
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Equestrian Pink Heart of Courage?
Yow. "Her Mox"... "Her Jane"... "Her Angel". Wings. An unexplained "splash". Whatever mindstate Sunset gets into here is definitely not healthy.
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If it saves their lives, it can't be bad. Right?
Nice Dodge by Angel. Snake reflexes are no joke. My dad told me a story of one time that he was out hunting. He spotted a snake curled up and glaring at him. He fired a shot next to the snake to scare it off, but the thing's reflexes were so damn quick it tried to attack the bullet. Got its head vaporized for the trouble, but goes to show just how fast snakes can be! Angel probably did the same but AWAY from the bullet.
Kinda eager to see Demon Sunset again. The claws, the wings, the cruelty... I suddenly really want to go a few rounds as Ridley in Smash Bros.
The snek lives! The snek lives! Stand down, men, stand down!
You are a monster for making me hang on to the snek's thread like that.
Normally I would praise you for something like this, but in this case I actually think the dangling sword was actually a detriment. There was a lot going on here in these scenes, and because there was a constant sense of ANGEL IS IN FREAKING DANGER hanging over the entire thing, all the other stuff seemed a whole lot less important and had a whole lot less impact. AppleSeed? Should have had a lot of focus. Dragon? Yeah, them too. The mass genocide because crazy robot? Just happened... toooooo fast.
What I'm saying is the way you did it had a lot of stuff get overshadowed in the jumble. Still good story, just pretty sure the event juggling could have been handled better.
-GM, master of beans.
ANGEL LIVES!! STOMP STOMP!! ANGEL LIVES!! STOMP STOMP!!
Say: "Thanks Seeker ex Machina for saving Snek waifu!"
Sunset clearly caller Jane her because of the Blood Bind
she hasn't referred to anyone else, even Angel, like that on her internal dialogue, as far as I have seen.
Either way, I wonder how dangerous this blood bind will be to Jane if something ever happens and Sunset unknowingly or even knowingly abuses of it
Almost a happy end?
Yeah! Snek Waifu Angel will make it! Thanks D!
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👍
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A full body suit denied her access to new blood might help.
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Seeker and Snek = ♡
Both have cuddle in their attack pattern
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Bloody nuke? Weapon of mass destruction...
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But the cool blood wings are fashionable
9105172
It happend already, meh.
It is spreading in degree currently
9105209
That gif... priceless 👍
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Snek-tacular camo.fimfiction.net/HGKOVNTrPh_dQIegq-4XQTTfq37sBPSPcGN3_7ZAMFg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fderpicdn.net%2Fimg%2Fview%2F2014%2F7%2F10%2F671941.gif
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Perfection ♡
camo.fimfiction.net/l8Is6_NpBNrNRtahSQdqo9QduFWIRmvzZ_dErhSS3Jw?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com%2Fi%2Ff484215b-4e9a-42b5-9feb-77c3dec3a385%2Fdbp4ts7-1a9f2940-d93e-460b-a330-fc12f1fc5731.png