//------------------------------// // 214. Battle for Saint Canard: Finale. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Saint Canard, five seconds ago, Dormarch- After she had charged her body up, Pom was coursing with that anomalous magical energy. When she kicked off the ground with her left hind leg, given the damage to her right hind leg, I was knocked over by the force of her movement. Every time before when she used Dancing Flame, she didn’t create a sonic boom or any kind of shockwave no matter what her movements or how she dodged literal bullets. In this case she did created a sonic boom and the last thing I saw was her right hoof plowing straight into the left side of Negatron Duck’s face and discharging an incredulous amount of energy directly into him. That last scan of I got of her body and her condition when she slowed down for a split second during impact, before she continued over the side of the building in a barely visible blur after Negatron Duck. It made me go quite pale when I compared it to the previous scan before she physically broke the sound barrier. With that one action alone, I can see why Shock-Ram was a technique that made Pom setting herself on fire the completely sane option when face with multiple opponents like those shadow beings. The deterioration she would be undergoing was, to my calculations, lethally exponential. Looking to the antenna and the tronsplitter, I silently made way to the edge of the roof and looked towards the hospital in the distance. In the back of my mind I considered how Pom would be crippled for life or severely injured if she just didn’t outright die from what she just did to herself. Her life was never in consideration when she compared it to the needs of the many. I have many things to do and not a lot of time. -Leap Lamb vs. Negatron Duck- Closing her eyes, Pom’s body started glowing with sparkles, she started to inhale and exhale in a rhythm and her eyes seemed to be a blur in her skull almost seeming to be completely white until they consolidate seemingly back to normal. Negatron looked confused, especially considering her wool stopped burning as the sparkles wrapped around her and something was very off with her. He still pulled out a pair of Gatling guns from behind his back and used his energy to fire them full bore at her. Pom stood still and her hooves only seemed to move slightly, Negatron Duck stopped firing in her general direction when it didn’t seem like she was getting hurt… that and there was a metal ball made of all the bullets he fired hovering right in front of her. Negatron blinked as she brought both her hooves together and swung them forward, she didn’t even hit the ball, but the resulting heated air of her hooves passing by it launched a shotgun blast of flaming metal at Negatron Duck. Negatron’s weapons were destroyed by the numerous bullets flying randomly in his direction and his energy formed a barrier that buckled heavily under the pressure of so much burning metal slamming into it. He dropped the barrier and fired a blast of energy with his right hand, only for it to splash against the street with no target in sight. That was when a car blindsided him from behind. In the air was Pom with her right leg extend across her left one having just kicked the car, she had hopped past Negatron so fast that he didn’t notice her movement when he was still defending the mass of gathered lead coming at him. After skidding underneath the car for a few feet, and probably feeling like road kill in this moment, the car proceeded to explode on top of Negatron. At this point Negatron started supercharging his brain as he burst himself out of the blast hole, turning in the air as he did so. He couldn’t keep up with Pom’s ridiculous speed and needed to put energy towards doing just that. It’s thanks to his accelerated thinking that he narrowly managed to drift left and right out of the way of the two light poles that were swiftly ripped up from the nearby street corners and hurled at him like javelins. Negatron had to duck the bent portion of the second pole to avoid having it slam into his face. He was about to retaliate when he felt Pom’s shoulder dig into his chest and he was soon plowing the street spine first. The city was going to need some repairs after this. Negatron was up and quick to fire three blasts of energy as he followed Pom’s movements with each shot and then added a fourth once Pom committed her last jump. Pom hopped from the street, bounced off the wall of building to her left and bounded off the nearby powerlines in an upside down position and then from the street directly for Negatron avoiding each blast. When he fired his fourth Pom fired a bark blast downwards to avoid that last blast and flipped into a powerful axe kick to Negatron’s skull. The creaking of her bones could be heard as much as the cracking of Negatron Duck’s skull from the blow that put his face into the street. Inflating her wool after bouncing off from the axe kick she pulled all of her legs back and then started stomping the space between her and Negatron Duck rapidly. Blasts of flaming spears and claws lashed out pummeling into Negatron Duck’s back as he tried to stand up under the onslaught that was destroying his clothing. Slowly reaching behind his back and upon speeding up his reaction speed, Negtraon swiftly pulled, aimed and fired a series of shot from a pistol in an infinitesimally small lull in Pom’s trample attack. Among the shots fired, only one hit and it tore into the left side of Pom’s neck sending her flipping backwards as her wool moved to shut the injury as soon as it happened. Negatron Duck tossed the gun knowing he didn’t have time to reload and pulled out a scythe. Using his powers, he sent it flying for Pom while she was still sealing off the gunshot wound. Much to Negatron Duck’s surprise, Pom lashed out her left hoof and got the scythe twirling around her left leg, then proceeded to spin it around her torso several times and right leg before laying it entirely across her withers holding the bottom end of the shaft with her left hoof and the blade pointing upwards from her right side. Pointing her right leg pointed towards Negatron, Pom was doing some mental calculations with her right hoof as she lifted the scythe upwards. After having judged the distance between them and grabbing the shaft of the weapon with both hooves, Pom slung it around twice in a blur of motion and then sent it flying horizontally at Negatron Duck as he tried to pull out another weapon. The scythe looking like a solid disc of silver with how fast it was spinning. Even with him using his powers to boost himself to keep up with Pom, the scythe ripped into Negatron’s left bicep as he tried to dodge. The scythe only flew a few feet afterwards, but it had cut three fourths of the way through Negatron’s arm almost taking it entirely off, this forced him to grab it with his right hand and use up energy to heal the damage. While he was doing this Pom hopped forward to deal a left hoof blow to his chest with bone crunching force. That put him through the corner of a building and out the other side onto a different street. Pom followed him by hopping down the street and landing at the intersection only to be immediately hit with a beam of raw energy that made her body convulse. Not that she could feel the pain that her body was going through, but she had heard the creaking of her bones threatening to break under the strain she was putting on it. Glaring at Negatron Duck as he started hitting her with two beams from both hands, she Inhaled and then let loose a bark blast that could be heard throughout the city as if a lion roared. Not only did the bark blast push the beams back, it absorbed the energy and then blew up in Negatron Duck’s face. Negatron Duck staggered back in shock wondering what just happened The people in the news helicopter were astonished as it swooped around to keep them in sight, then watched as Pom raised her front legs above her head and twisted her body. With a lunge she shot at Negatron with the wool concentrated on the front half of her body and drilled into him with a massive barraged of swirling flaming claws that pushed him back and through the walls of an abandoned bank. Her momentum kept going until his back was forced into the banks vault door, where he became embedded in the thick metal. Pom pushed off with a buck to his stomach and landed on all four hooves to look on warily at the bloodied Negatron and his shredded clothing. Eventually he stood up and spat out a glob of darkness that looked vaguely like grey and black colored blood that matched his current form, his clothing and body started regenerating from looking shredded and went to looking like a cat went rabid on him. However healing from debilitating injuries like this was eating through his energy reserves far faster than Negatron would like, in fact he could feel his ability to build up negatron energy was slowing down immensely. Taking the initiative while healing, Negatron fired four alternating blasts from his hands at Pom. Pom retaliated by hold her right leg in front of her and then thrusting her left hoof forward over it to fire a fireball, then did an alternating pattern of this to shoot fireballs that blocked that exploded the energy blasts before they could get close to hitting her. Negatron for his part had never heard that Leap Lamb had the ability to project fire like this before, then again anyone that knew Pom would be terribly surprised to learn she was mimicking the Longma combat style quite well while under the power of Dolly’s flow motion ability. Bringing her right hind leg up she prepared to lunge with a kick, she launched forward and Negatron spun to the side as her kick lashed out and made the hinges of the bank vaults door groan under the impact. Continuing his spin, Negatron threw a nasty right haymaker that bloodied Pom’s nose with a sickening crunch. Pom’s body destroyed the entrance of the bank and became embedded in the wall of the building across the street. Negatron laughed, well at least he was laughing up until he received Pom’s head with hardened wool to the chest and sent him back into the bank vaults door. The portion of the wall around the door ripped apart as the bank vault door flipped backwards like a coin with Negatron on one side of it. Leaping up to it, Pom brought both her burning hooves up and slammed them down on the vault door when Negatron was face down on the underside of it. Creating massive cracks in the floor of the vault as it crushed the negatively charged duck underneath. Pom landed on her hind legs and she took note of her cyclic breathing for Dancing Flame was becoming haggard, so she knew how bad off she was at the moment. She could only hope that had actually put Negatron down, for the moment at least. The vault door suddenly became covered in the negative energy and launched itself directly for Pom. Pom rolled onto her backed and struck the edge of the vault door with her hind legs to send it spinning upwards and then it embedded itself in floor by its edge at thirty to forty five degree angle outside the vault. Using the backwards rolling kick that knocked the door away from slamming into her, she was on her four hooves and hopping towards Negatron as he stood up with his left hand on his back and using his right hand to push himself into a standing position after using it to launch the vault door at Pom. Pom went for an overhead right hoof strike in a lunge, that’s when Negatron lashed out with his left hand and rammed a rapier straight through the lower right side of Pom’s torso and out her back. He pushed upwards to hold her aloft for a few seconds with a demented grin… which soon slid off his face. Negatron was still upset that his opponent wouldn’t scream or show any signs of pain for him, what was she made of that she didn’t even yelp?! How was he to know that Pom couldn’t currently feel anything as her body tore itself apart? The blow was not fatal as Negatron wanted to be as he continued to push his weapon upwards into Leap Lamb and hold her aloft. Pom, under the effects of Dancing Flame, had seen the impossible to dodge blow coming and decided to take full advantage of being run through. As the tip of the rapier entered her, Pom’s entire body began to ripple from the devastating impact of where she had been stabbed and the rippled made all four of her legs wobbled violently as they spread out. A Paprika style wobble counter using all four hooves, plus Dolly’s flowing motion ability, plus dancing flame as she exhaled, plus being under the effects of Shock-Ram. The combination of all these factors at once would not have been survivable under normal circumstances. These circumstances were not normal. The resulting simultaneous four hoof blow blew out the back of the bank vault and the entire back wall of the whole bank using Negatron’s body. Negatron went through two buildings leaving massive holes behind and bounced down the road, getting terrible road rash in the process, before he managed to slap his left hand down on the street. Yet the momentum kept him sliding and he had to dig the fingers of both his hands into the street until they wore down to the bone before he could stop. Regenerating his fingers, Negatron was shaking. He actually felt fear. All his planning and he was being matched or, the possibility he’d rather not even consider, possibly losing to someone who looked like a freaking pillow! Looking up at the tower in the distance, where he had left the tronsplitter and the antenna undefended, he realized that all he had to do to win was press a single button. He had been too distracted with beating down the hero and wanting to hear her scream blood murder, he could still win this. He quickly lifted into the air and tried to fly towards the tallest building in Saint Canard, tried because Pom latched onto his left shoulder with her teeth and somehow yanked him out the air with a jerk of her neck. Upon hitting the ground on top of him, she tore a large bloody chunk out of him before he kicked her off. Now Negatron was having problems trying to heal, especially after the crazy ass sheep just tore his shoulder up with her unnaturally sharp teeth. Also since when did sheep fangs like that?! Landing from being kicked, Pom unleashed a feral howl. Her intelligence didn’t leave her eyes, she was in full control of herself and she knew she had at least one broke limb… maybe two… if her whole skeleton wasn’t collapsing in on itself yet, then that was good enough in her mind. She thought she heard something snapping apart inside of her after her howl, she didn’t have much time left. Negaduck would remember that howl for the rest of his life and it would haunt his dreams. Pom currently appreciated the fact that Dolly’s power somehow made her wool immune to burning down. Speaking of wool, hers was sealing the most recent wound and she didn’t know what kind of internal injuries she had taken or how long she had left before her body ultimately gives up. Growling she prepared to attack and Negatron blasted himself into the air and curved around to go flying for the tower. Pom glared after him and her wool did something unique as it shifted, two wool wings erupted from her back and she jumped after Negatron. Doing so ignited the wings lighting the fake wings on fire, with one flap she flashed towards the retreating Negatron. Negatron wasn’t the only one surprised to see Pom morph her wool into burning wings, Pom was even surprised that with one flap she caught up with him halfway to the building. The faint trail of sparkles she left behind meant she was still utilizing Dolly’s flow motion ability, but it was drowned out by the fact that Pom’s body was now engulfed in flames and seemed to look vaguely like an ascending phoenix… or a dragon. Negatron pulled out a shotgun and, actually wielding it with both hands due to weakening, fired it at Pom. The flaming wool wings swung forward in front of Pom and the pellets all melted and dropped straight down upon coming into range of the immense heat coming from the flames. They didn’t even touch Pom. Negatron couldn’t even load a shot before Pom was on him Slamming front of her right hoof upwards into his chest flipping him up in the air, she kicked upwards with her left hind leg flipping him even more with a blow to the chin that almost shattered his beak sending cracks throughout it. With a single flap Pom was above and performing an axe kick that sent Negatron Duck hurtling towards the ground and with an upwards swing of both wings she shot downwards to being below the fast already fast moving Negaduck. Closing her eyes and spreading her hooves wide to swirl them inwards in a circular motion, a yin yang symbol was etched into the air and formed out of the flames Pom was covered in as she brought her hooves together. “BURNING WINGS!” Pom’s eyes snapped open and her hooves dragged against each other creating a massive amount of friction, she basically exploded as soon as she had shouted that. The shaped she generated was seen by all who were watching the news as Pom erupted with flames and the wings spread out creating an image of, in the minds of the people watching, an angel. Negatron had been on the cusp of passing her when she did this. If anyone thought Negatron Duck was hurtling towards the ground before, they didn’t see what caused a mild earthquake throughout the city or the thirty feet deep hole as Pom started dropping from the sky heavily scorched. The attack had burnt Pom badly and she was no longer engulfed in flames as the attack had seemed to have used them up, Negatron had almost turned to ash from the resulting heat. Inflating her remaining wool that wasn’t covering an injury, Pom landed as softly as she could and listened to her own breathing cycle0. She was getting close to a point where her body was going to fail her soon, she didn’t have much time left in her and the clock was slowly ticking down. Having replicated Tianhuo’s most explosive technique, which was safe for a longma to do, was something Pom didn’t think she was actually capable of. It also seemed that without being engulfed in fire… she couldn’t fly. With what little time she had to breathe and recover minutely, Pom mentally considered the fact that she would have to learn to fly without lighting herself aflame or else Tianhuo might worry that she had suicidal tendencies. Considering it for a second, Pom realized that it wouldn’t actually be far from the truth considering her current health and that she may be dying and not know it yet. A second later Pom flopped onto her back to avoid fast flying spear as Negatron Duck pulled himself out the hole and launched another spear forcing Pom to roll out of the way and onto her hooves. “You can’t possibly have that much left in you after that last attack!” Negatron Duck was losing his black and grey color scheme, seeming to flicker into almost reverting back into Negaduck for second before he charged up energy. Negatron had been pushed past the threshold required to recover his energy and could no longer go critical like some feared, but he figured he still had enough power in him to kill Leap Lamb at least. Reaching behind him he pulled out five spears in each hand for a total of ten and launched them forward, the spears stopped in the air and all angled for Pom. “Why won’t you DIE, damn it!” Negatron glowed and all the spears shot down at Pom, who twisted her body out of the way of each spear taking a cut across the spine, left front leg near the hoof and scrape against her left inner thigh. Pom caught the seventh spear that came at her and twirled it deflecting the last three before lunging forward to stab at Negatron. Negatron pulled out a shield that broke the spear Pom wielded, then bashed her in the face. “You’re not going to bring me down, I won’t let you! I will destroy this entire city if I have…” A whistling noise was heard and Pom hopped backwards and clumsily landed as a mass of chemicals struck Negatron Duck down from above. Negatron roared in agony as the area was flooded with positron energy and he started to revert back to being himself. “NO, I WAS TO BE THE RULER OF THIS TWISTED CITY!” Once the light died down Pom was now looking at Negatron who was barely holding onto his form as it flickered with the yellow and red that Negaduck wore. He pulled out a chainsaw, he was exhausted and just lost all his tronsplitter given powers. He charged forward raising the chainsaw and Pom tried to move, but four snapping sounds came from her legs. She toppled to the ground, she couldn’t move her legs and tried to stay awake her vision was blurring. Negatron raised the chainsaw, he brought it down only to be blasted back by two rays of positron energy. Turning her head Pom looked at Dormarch, Darkwing and Lena had set up the two tronsplitters while Negatron… or Negaduck as he finally reverted to his previous state tried to swipe his chainsaw for her. Dormarch teleported in front of her and then… things went black for Pom. She had successfully defeated Negatron, but Negaduck still had some strength left in him and the lambkin hoped they had it from here. -Dormarch- I could heal from this, I will heal from this, I can heal from this, I’m not going to die here and neither is Pom! I was posed to take the blow that would have torn Pom apart. The PET around my neck started glowing brightly for some reason as I was prepared to sacrifice myself for the most important person in my life! The chainsaw was about to make contact with my torso as I stood firm in my resolve and persevered ready to take a death blow for Pom. Only before the first whirling blade could even touch my fur, a shock pistol blast from above struck the chainsaw and the energy traveled into Negaduck making him stagger back. Negaduck roared in frustration as his body went through several jerky and painful spasms. Two more shock pistol blasts followed staggering Negaduck even more. That’s when Officer Bonkers released the latch on his parachute and dropped to the ground next to us. He looked at Pom bleeding out on the ground and narrowed his eyes at Negaduck, before thumbing his shock pistol to a much higher setting. “Sorry I’m late… TOON Division, you’re under arrest Negaduck!” The wild look in Negaduck’s eyes meant he was definitely not going to go quietly as he blocked the next shock pistol blast by throwing the chainsaw into its path. He pulled out a riot shield and blocked the more powerful shock pistol shot that knocked him further back and he pulled a sword out. “I’m not going down without a…” A white down covered hand slapped into his neck and the wild duck’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he almost flopped forward, he managed to get standing before the barrel of a weapon slammed into his temple finally taking him down. -Darkwing- Standing there I just stared, looking down at the fallen form in front of me. I shook my head sadly at the badly injured Jim Starling, he was going to be remembered as one of the most devastating villains in history… he was sadly getting exactly what he wanted all along. I knew him inside and out like he knew me. Now it was up to a court of law as to whether he got the death penalty or not, I’m not a judge… I’m a protector and a guardian of those who couldn’t fend for themselves. I was dead tired, exhausted and had fought so many things today, yet here I was still standing even with all that Negaduck could throw at me and the city of Saint Canard. I did not want to become like him and I wanted to be the figure that he portrayed on the Darkwing Duck show before he became… like this. I just took down mine and Launchpad’s childhood hero, he was too much of a threat to leave standing any longer. For the first time my gas gun had no ammunition and I hadn’t been prepared as well as I thought I was. Fame, fortune, what do these things get Negaduck in the long run? I was doing this for the people who needed a hero and this was my wakeup call and reminder of who I aimed to be. -Dormarch- “That… that was scary…” Lena stated drawing my attention back to her floating magical form and then to Pom’s body bleeding out on the ground. “That he could even keep going after all of that.” “… Pom… Pom… POM?!” With a swift search hunter, I grabbed the medical kit and appeared next to her. “I need help! All four legs broken in multiple places, several critical injuries throughout the torso, spine cracked throughout, internal organs in the process of failing and brain suffocation in process… the only reason why she’s not dead yet is the wool bandages… all muscles shredded… no-no-no-no, you are not allowed to die on me… not like this mommy!” Darkwing, Lena and even Bonkers D. Bobcat rushed over to my side hearing my cry, I was too focused on trying to find a list of where to start to even begin saving Pom’s life. “Someone get Ms. Shuttle here now!” I screamed, the stasis field she had inside her could keep Pom alive, nutrient drip, nobody would have Pom’s blood type unless... “Lena, you, bring Ms. Shuttle here! Ocellus I need you here like yesterday! We can’t take her to a hospital as assassins and mercenaries will take this chance to kill her and if you hadn’t noticed the news copter is filming us right now so they know she’s not in a condition to fight back!” Lena blasted off into the sky and towards the direction I pointed Ms. Shuttle to be in. “Can we do anything for her right now?” Darkwing said as I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. “Follow my orders exactly!” I need to stop her condition from worsening, an entire databanks worth of medical knowledge flooded my head as I searched for all the pertinent information I needed. “Officer I need all the hands I can get for this.” “Fawn this is Bonkers, get over here quickly!” Bonkers radioed as he knelt down next to the medical kit and got it open. Pom… mom… was not... not going to die here, not if I had anything to say about it! -Several hours later, Ocellus- The long beep of someone dead was soon reversed when Ms. Shuttle’s voice spoke up, the sound had woken me up and was giving me nightmares even before it had started again. Looking at the time, it was close to the point the sun would start rising, and not at Celestia's behest. Still had to get used to that and the fact that a lot of regular people had died yesterday in the ensuing chaos Negaduck started. “Shock.” With the sound of the rabbit faced bus’s voice, Pom’s body safely convulsed inside the stasis field. “Shock.” Ms. Shuttle looked at me as I frowned, a second shock occurred. Pom’s heart restarted, that’s fifty eighth time in the last five hours I've been woken up by the horrifying sound. It was like Pom had given up on life, but we certainly hadn’t on forcing her to live. My ability to change my blood type to anything was really helping here, Dormarch insisted there would be no side effects as Pom’s blood was slowly consuming my own to replicate itself. He said I was a universal donor that could give blood to anyone. If this information got out back on Equus, we changelings would become more of a hot commodity in the medical fields if true. Dormarch was asleep at Pom’s side as was an exhausted Dolly who had at some point lost consciousness and had extreme magical exhaustion. At least her magical exhaustion wasn’t as bad as when you had a focal point for magic like I did with my horn. Aside from Dormarch, I was the only one left in Leap Lamb’s group capable and healthy enough in making any decisions for our almost completely destroyed group. Not even Shanty could muster up any cheer, after looking at the onboard heart monitor Ms. Shuttle had for emergency patients. She just quietly drank from a bottle of rum as she sat next to the floating, thankfully unconscious, Pom. Surprisingly, while we all knew alcohol doesn’t affect her mentally, Shanty did get the positive benefits of dulling her physically pained body by imbibing the liquids. We were all just shy of being mentally broken, we were exhausted in every way imaginable and there was nothing to keep us going. If dreams could come true in this world, we needed a miracle to even survive the next few days if we were attacked. No one in our group was in any shape to fight… aside from me and I was currently being used as a living blood bag. So even I wouldn’t be able to put up much of one. Most of the heroes in Saint Canard were heavily injured, even Glue Gal and Sneeze Master had taken gunshot wounds in the defense of the hospital. The only active heroes left were Lena, Stegmutt and Darkwing Duck. The endurance and resilience Darkwing showed was absurd as he continued fighting crime in this city even now, despite having survived a forty story fall before slamming through a plate glass window at terminal velocity after using the grappling hook in his gun and dislocating all the bones in his right arm. He still managed to get his nerveless fingers around the grip of his gas gun with his bad arm and bring down Negaduck through sheer force of will while wielding his weapon in both hands. It was going to be hard for anyone to ignore Darkwing as a hero now, but he wasn’t happy about the fame he earned from this… on the backs of many broken heroes as being one among the few survivors remaining who fought through most of the day and through the night. ...and was still fighting to save his city even as we left. Criminals would soon learn to fear the name Darkwing Duck. If Pom ever woke up, she would quickly find out that she was crippled in so many ways that the constant pain would be the least of her problems. Looking out the nearby window, I saw that we were crossing the bridge into San Fransokyo. We couldn’t stay in Saint Canard, through various contacts Darkwing had with the organization called SHUSH there were already reported assassination movements gunning for Pom. Nobody who had ill desires wanted someone like Pom to ever recover from the severe damage she’s done to her body, her injuries were worse than last time and I didn’t think that was possible, much less survivable. “Contacting Big Hero Six… Hiro Yamada… yes Ms. Bunny Shuttle here coming into the city from the north side, please have Baymax report to me immediately for a protection duty emergency.” Ms. Shuttle was going to do her best for us and she had connections with a team of heroes that could protect us for a time. “I also need him for a second opinion patient assessment and for a possible assessment of spinal damage for two individuals. I need to be fully rearmed with chemicals as quickly as Bazooka Bunny can feasibly do so… because I want to protect the lives currently inside me with extreme prejudice Hiro. I don’t want anyone to possibly intercept this transmission and find out where or who my patient is. We need anonymity, but you’ll see for yourself how bad it is soon enough. The whole team for an escort? We need to be a bit more subtle than that… how about 'Wheel Cat' along with Baymax?” You were going to live Pom, even if we had to bring down this whole world down around us to make that happen. We should really let you go, but we were not going to… none of us wanted to say goodbye and we simply wouldn’t! We refused! You hear that world, you wouldn’t take Pom from us and your not taking any of the rest of us either! “For we aren’t dead yet…” I stated quietly as my horn ignited and this time… no pain. The light dancing at the tip of my horn, I was the last embers of a flickering flame of hope still left in our group as I watched the sun filter through the windows of Ms. Bunny Shuttle. "Ocellus... your horn is better... that is... that's... good at least... yeah, good news." I looked to Smolder, she wasn't sleeping easily either. I felt an unending blast of love from her suddenly strike me, luring me towards her. It raised my spirits as she smirked. "Love you, now be my bed bug and let me help you sleep. Also Pom, stop dying long enough for us to get some sleep, Tartarus! That's an order from a dragon and you're a Huoshan Guard, so you have to oblige us!" I laid down next to Smolder and she wrapped her claws around me, her warmth and love helping me slip back into a state of uneasy rest. I did not want to hear the tone of Pom flatlining again for at least an hour, it would be eight more before she flatlined again. I didn't really want to know if Smolder's order got through to Pom or if it even had any effect at all, but I'm glad Pom was still able to be revived then too.