Chapter 19
“No more,” Dude said, waving Roxxy off as she stood before him smiling widely.
“Come on! You can bet your magic, I’ll give it back!” she said excitedly, pacing around the garage they were in.
“No!” he yelped, grabbing his horn. “What if you don’t give it back?”
“I’ve given everything else back, haven’t I?” she said, giving him a pleading smile.
He groaned, then nodded, “fine. I bet my magic I can beat you at heads or tails.”
“Bad move, bro,” Nightstreak laughed as he grunted as he laid on the bench press, struggling a bit as he had the max amount of weight on the bar.
“Heads or tails?” she asked, holding up a coin.
“Tails,” he said with a sigh.
She flipped it and caught it, slamming it onto her hoof. A wide smile on her face. “Heads.”
“Of course,” he mumbled as he watched a stream of magic pour out of his horn and into her.
“Ooo!” she said, dancing around. “How do I use it?!”
“I dunno,” he said with a smirk. “Not like I know how to use magic after all.”
“Okay now you’re just being mean,” she complained as she glared at his smug look.
Summer Breeze groaned from her desk as she looked up at everyone, “why’d you all get cool and fun Ego’s, and I got one I have to study for?!”
“Because you’re the smartest one in the group,” Nightstreak grunted as he kept pumping iron.
A little spark of magic happened in front of Roxxy. “Oh yes! I’m figuring it out!”
Dude rolled his eyes and walked over to Nightstreak as he stood behind him, spotting him as he started to struggle to raise the bar. “What have you figured out so far, Summer?”
“I can heal scratches and simple things,” she replied, shaking her head. “I have to figure out how a body works before I can do anything useful though.”
“Looks like you’re going to be a Doctor like Aunt Twilight said you would be,” Nightstreak said as he started to shake, the bar no longer moving upward. “Ah crap!”
“Gotcha,” Dude said as he grabbed the bar and helped lift it back up and racked it.
“Shit, thanks,” he said as he sat up and leaned forward, breathing heavily.
“You’re pushing yourself, bud,” Dude said as he walked around him and picked up a towel. With a pop, he slapped it against Nightstreaks face.
“Gotta get these muscles up to spec,” he laughed, flexing his decently large muscles as he summoned his Ego guantlets. “That way I can live up to my Ego.”
Dude rolled his eyes again as he walked over to Roxxy as she struggled to cast a spell of any kind. “Magic back please.”
“Not yet!” she said, face straining as she tried to force magic to happen.
“Roxxy,” he said evenly, causing her to sigh.
“Fine, but I get to try again later,” she conceded as she pulled out her coin. “I bet your magic that I’ll get heads,” she said as he nodded in agreement. She flipped the coin, heads, “Shit.” She flipped it again, heads again. Three more times, all heads. “Come on!”
She kept trying as Dude watched in growing horror, believing he’d never get his magic back.
Finally, she landed a tails, “finally!” A trail of magic floated from her head back to Dude’s horn, causing him to sigh in relief.
“Hey guys, I figured something else out!” Flippy Dew yelled as everyone looked at her. She rubbed her hooves together and threw them out, causing two bowl shaped forcefields to appear before her. She jumped up into one and began to laugh as they began to move, closing up like a shell. “I can move them!”
“Well that’s fucking cool,” Nightstreak said with a smile.
“It sure is cool,” a voice said from behind them, causing all of them to go stiff. Slowly, they all turned to the door that led into the rest of the house, seeing Scamp standing there, glaring.
“Erm, hey, Sensei Scamp,” Nightstreak said with a weak wave. “What brings you to my house?”
“Shayla,” she stated calmly, causing all of them to look nervous. “Your faces say it all. Where is she?”
“Umm,” Roxxy began slowly.
“Do not lie to me,” Scamp warned, stepping into the garage with them. She then glared as she looked at Flippy Dew as she sat suspended in the air.
Flippy Dew smiled awkwardly as she got rid of the forcefields and landed on the ground.
She then looked to Nightstreak, staring directly at his Ego gauntlets. He blinked then sent them away, hoping she hadn’t noticed, even though she was looking right at him.
“... Where did you guys get Ego?” she asked, her eye twitching as she started to put things together.
“Uh…” Roxxy tried to think of an answer, but like everyone else, she had nothing.
“Uh?” Scamp mimicked back. “Okay, we’re going to do this simply. Viper Claw, line up!”
They all rushed forward, lining up before her, all looking a bit scared.
She began to walk along the line, staring at each of them. “Tell me exactly what happened? Where did you get your Ego’s and weapons?”
“Remember the guy Champion was fighting?” Nightstreak said, getting a nod from Scamp. “Um, that was a guy called Loric who was an Enforcer.”
This caused her to stumble a bit, as she hadn't expected that. Bronwyn has been searching everywhere for her friends, and now she’s hearing one of them was actually here. “Where is he?”
“Uh…” Roxxy mumbled, looking uncomfortable. “Dead.”
“Dead?” Scamp asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Champion wounded him and he died,” Dude added lamely.
“He made us Enforcer’s before he died and we went to the Enforcer’s personal dimension,” Flippy Dew said, causing Scamp to rub her face in frustration. “That’s where we met a short butler who gave us our Ego’s and Ego weapons.”
“Is my daughter there right now?” Scamp asked, sounding completely done with this situation already.
No one said a word.
Scamp stopped pacing and glared at them, their silence not setting well with her. “Where is she?”
They all looked at each other, seeming to try to convince someone to tell her.
“SPEAK!” Scamp yelled in her authoritative voice.
“She took Kal and his guys to Eris!” Flippy Dew yelped, falling out of the line and putting a forcefield around herself as she fell to the ground in the fetal position.
“What?” Scamp asked in a dangerously calm voice. “When?”
“Yesterday,” Roxxy mumbled, cowering a bit as Scamp started to shake.
“I found her Order Hall Dagger and Enforcer Dagger in my bags this morning,” Summer Breeze added, getting a few shocked looks from the others. “I didn’t want to worry anyone…”
Everyone looked to Scamp as she was trying to calm down, taking deep breaths. “Okay. My daughter took Kal and his cronies to Eris. When did she say she’d be back?”
“... a few hours,” Nightstreak admitted.
“When were you going to tell someone?” Scamp asked, a bit of anger in her voice despite her efforts to remain calm.
“... later?” Dude offered.
“Later,” Scamp mumbled, turning and slamming a hoof into a heavy bag, ripping it in half from the force of her hit. Everyone recoiled in fear as she stood there, sheathing in anger. She took a shaky breath and turned back to them, “let me get this straight. You all met Loric before he died, he made you Enforcers, then you got Ego’s from some butler in a personal dimension, then my daughter came back and took Kal to Eris, and was only supposed to be gone a few hours but has not returned in a full day.”
“And her daggers were in my bags…” Summer Breeze added quietly.
Scamp sat down hard on her flank and groaned loudly.
“Sensei Scamp,” Nightstreak began, causing her eye to snap to him. “It’s my fault that-”
“Don’t do the ‘it’s all my fault’ stick,” she deadpanned as she stood up and walked over to Summer Breeze and held out her paw. “Give me both of the Dagger’s.”
Without hesitation she ran over to her bags and pulled out the two daggers in question and ran them back to Scamp, laying them in her paw.
“You use them by-” she started, but Scamp waved her off.
“I know how to use them, I’ve gone on a few adventure’s with Bronwyn over the years,” she said, turning for the door. “You guys just hang out here. I’m going to get my daughter.”
“We can help,” Flippy Dew said as she stood up.
“Nope,” was all Scamp said as she closed the door, leaving them all standing there.
Nightstreak let out a loud sigh, “Shayla is going to kill us…”
ooo000<^>000ooo
I let out a loud laugh as I sat between Liles and Liz on the couch as we flipped through a large photo album. They’d just recounted a story of when my mom tried to build her own gun but it ended up with her somehow falling down a set of stairs. The picture they used as reference showed a very young version of my mom sitting at the bottom of some stairs with weapon parts all around her with the most pathetic crying face I’d ever seen.
“She was always such a handful,” Liz laughed, flipping the page to reveal a few more pictures. “This one,” she said as she started to crack up again, pointing to one with my mom in a beautiful dress that was covered in mud, a pissed off look on her face. “This was when she went on her first date but the poor guy made a comment about her dress, so she ended up wrestling him into submission. Which only achieved him running away and her dress being ruined.”
“That thing was so expensive,” Liles laughed, wiping a tear from his face, “we made her wear that dress as it was to a few events just to teach her a lesson.”
“Did it work?” I asked, grinning at the picture.
“Of course not!” he exclaimed, causing Liz to snort laugh.
“She was the most stubborn of our children,” she said, placing a finger on the picture of her. “I really wish you’d bought some photos of her…”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I patted her knee.
“Actually, we can show her to them,” Rosemary said as she laid on the couch head behind us.
‘How?’ I thought to her.
“You Egonetic’s,” she said, appearing before me and pointing to the two ports on both of my wrists. “You can connect those to them and I can control what happens.”
‘What do you mean you control what happens?’
“You can do a lot with those little connection cables! We can connect to basically anything, and I can do almost anything you can think of once connected! For example, I can show them images and memories of your parents.”
‘Let’s do it,’ I thought with a smile as I leaned back, the two of them turning their heads to look at me.
“Okay, so don’t freak out,” I said, causing them to raise their eyebrows. “I can show you both my parents, but you’ll have to trust me.”
“Trust you?” Liz asked.
“That’s a bit worrying,” Liles muttered with a growing frown.
“Just trust me, okay?” I said as I pulled out both connection cables from my wrist, holding the cables in each hand.
“What are those?!” Liz asked, starting to scoot away from me.
“Wait,” I said as I held them up. “I have something in me that allows me to share my memories with others,” I said, simplifying it for them.
“Oh?” Liles asked, now more intrigued than worried.
“Yeah,” I said with a smile. “I can let you see some memories of my parents.”
Liz slowly moved back to my side, “I do want to see Mallogory and her mate…”
“I say do it!” Liles said as he leaned towards me. “What do we do here?”
“Stick it anywhere on them,” Rosemary instructed. “The connections will reform to fit the current need.”
“Hold out your arms,” I said, followed by them both pulling back their sleeves and holding their arms out to me. Carefully, I pushed the ends of the cables to their arms, watching as it formed into a strange shape and slid into their skin.
“Oh!” Liz exclaimed as she looked at the little cable connected to her arm.
Rosemary smiled as she faded away, “here we go!”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Do we even have a plan anymore?” Domitor asked as he and Lenrick walked down the street, the Kejtdra around them giving them a wide berth, seeming very suspicious of them.
“Sure we do,” Lenrick chuckled as he walked along at a leisure pace, hands in his pockets. “We’re going to find a nice club and I’m going to sample the locals,” he said as he eyed a female Kejtdra near them, who quickly moved out of view once she realized he was staring at her.
“What about finding Shayla?” Domitor questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“Listen, Dom,” Lenrick said, leaning down as they walked and patting his shoulder, “she’s gone. We lost her, and Lorenzo is going to be pissed.”
“Oh…” Domitor mumbled, lowering his head.
“So we’re going to enjoy ourselves and then tell him we tried our best, that way he’ll just punish us lightly. Trust me, Dom, I know how to handle Lorenzo, as long as he’s not in a mood when we see him.”
“He’s always in a mood,” Domitor commented, getting a laugh out of the man.
He stood up straight and threw his head back, still laughing, “do not let him ever hear you say that, kid! WHEW!”
Seeing Lenrick laugh along with him, and not at him, was an amazing change of pace. He just hoped the others would accept him as well.
As they went back to walking in silence, he saw a short female Kejtdra stumbling through the crowd ahead of them, walking against the flow of traffic as she bumped into other Kejtdra’s, laughing and apologizing as she did so.
Her oversized purple jacket shifted all around her as she stumbled along, the puffy arms of the jacket making her look like she had massive arms as well. But she appeared to be a normal sized, if not skinny, Kejtdra with longer combs than most of the other’s he’d seen. To top it off she had on a pair of tight pants with oversized shoes that looked to be mostly untied, the tops flared open.
When she neared them, she stumbled towards Domitor and bumped into his side, “Sorry, pal!”
He felt something that caused his eyes to narrow as he spun on her and grabbed her hand in his hoof, seeing she was holding a few of his drawing pens.
She blinked at him in complete surprise as he held her hand tightly in his hoof. “Did you just pickpocket me?”
Lenrick laughed loudly at this, but didn’t interfere.
The short Kejtdra suddenly smiled and stared back at him. “You know, I thought you looked weird as I was stumbling towards ya. I just thought you were his pet or somethin’.”
“Nope,” Domitor said as he reached up and took back his drawing pens with his other hoof. Once he had them he threw her hand to the side and returned his things to his bag.
“What are ya?” She asked with an intrigued smile.
Domitor frowned as he turned his attention back to her, “I’m not going to speak to the kid who just pickpocketed me.”
“I ain’t a damn kid, bucko,” she sneered, striking a suggestive pose. “Full grown woman right here!”
“Cool, you can go now,” Domitor said coldly, but she just kept smiling at him.
Lenrick just sat back and watched the show, rubbing his chin as he smirked at the two.
“Oh come on! You’re the first person to actually catch me in the act,” she said, opening up her large coat to reveal she had all kinds of small trinkets and items stuffed into the many pockets. “Don’t run me off just like that!”
He grunted as he took a step away from her, “Lenrick, help me here.”
“Nah, I like her,” he laughed, getting a look of disbelief from Domitor.
“Sweet,” she said, giving him a thumbs up. “Now what are you two?!”
“I’m a human, and that little guy before you is a pegasus, and a little badass to boot,” Lenrick said, giving Domitor a wink.
“Stop that,” Domitor said, not liking where this was going.
“No idea what either of those things are,” she admitted, putting her hands in her jacket’s pockets. “But if you’re able to sense me stealing from ya, then you must be some kinda special guy. My Thorn allows me to move around unseen and undetected. Yet here we are.”
“Oh you have a Thorn?” Lenrick asked, now very interested in her.
“Yup!” she said as she held up her hand and pulled the glove off of it, revealing a small hole. “Got it when I was a kid. Do you have a Thorn?” She asked, staring at Domitor with expectant eyes.
“Nope,” he replied simply.
This caused her already wide eyes to widen even further, “that’s amazing… no Thorn and you caught me!” She stood up straight and wiped a sleeve across her nose. “So, room for one more in this little party of yours?”
“We’re a duo only,” Domitor deadpanned.
“Always room for one more!” Lenrick exclaimed, overriding the annoyed stallion.
“Oh hell yeah!” she said as she pumped her fist into the air.
“Oh come on!” Domitor complained, but Lenrick just leaned down and smiled at him as he spoke in a low tone.
“Trust me, we need a guide if we’re going to have any kind of fun here. Besides, you might be able to score with this one, she’s exuding interest towards you.”
“Gross,” Domitor grumbled as he looked at her, seeing her give him two finger guns. He turned back to Lenrick, “I don’t like this.”
“Too bad!” Lenrick smirked as he stood up and looked at the short Kejtdra. “First question for our new member; where can I fuck a Kejtdra?”
The short woman snorted as she rolled her eyes, “male or female?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he replied, getting a nod of approval from her.
“Well, then I know just the place!”
“They got alcohol there too?” he asked.
“What do you think?” She replied with a wink.
“Score,” he muttered.
Domitor grumbled to himself, staring at the short Kejtdra.
She took a step towards him and took one of her hands out of her pockets and reached out to him. “Names Floria.”
He frowned at her, but Lenrick gave him a slight kick in the flank, so he raised a hoof and shook her hand. “Domitor.”
Somehow her smile widened as she gave his hoof a squeeze, so he squeezed back even harder. “Ooo, I like you for sure. I can feel those muscles!”
“Geez,” he groaned, letting go of her hand.
Lenrick waited for her to ask his name, but she kept her attention on Domitor.
“Do you have years of training or something?” she asked curiously.
“Yep,” he replied simply.
“Can you do cool tricks?” she asked, looking excited. When he rolled his eyes, she squealed, “That means yes! You just don’t want to admit it!”
“Are you sure you’re a ‘full grown woman’?” he asked in annoyance.
“As of last year, yes,” she said, smirking at him. “So about those tricks.”
“Name’s Lenrick,” Lenrick suddenly interjected. “And you said you knew where I could get my fuck on?”
Floria stood up straight and put her hand back in her pocket. “Sure do. Wanting to get to that?”
“Very much so,” he said, waving for them to continue on.
“Alright, but you two gotta open up a bit as we walk,” she said, starting to walk forward with Lenrick. When she saw Domitor wasn’t moving, she waved for him to follow, “well come on!”
“This is dumb,” he mumbled, reluctantly following after them as they all began to walk down the street.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Yes!” Lenrick exclaimed as they entered into the brightly lit club, which wasn’t that active since it was day time. But that just meant more for him as he saw a few employees walking around. “Good things really do happen to horrible people!”
Domitor groaned as he saw the half naked Kejtdra walking around. But to be fair, he wasn’t even sure what naked meant for them, as he had no idea what their anatomy was even like. Which he was starting to count as one of his few blessings.
“Go crazy,” Floria said as she stood by the door, watching the two of them.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Lenrick said as he walked towards two of the scantily dressed employee’s, one male and one female, and put his arm over them. After a short talk, they walked for the back where some private rooms appeared to be.
As for Domitor, he walked over to a booth by itself and sat down, crossing his arms.
A female Kejtdra walked over immediately, “services?”
“No,” he said bluntly, causing her to turn and wave for a male Kejtdra to take her place.
“Services?” the male Kejtdra asked as he stepped up next, smiling widely.
“Nope,” he said just as bluntly, laying his head back on the seat.
Once they walked away, Floria, who was still at the door, raised an eyebrow. She moved to his booth and slid in front of him.
“What? Not interested in sexing it up today?” she asked, a smirk on her face.
“I’m not interested in that kinda stuff,” he said, his legs crossed as he glared at her. “Places like this are just gross.”
She sighed, her happy go lucky facade seeming to waver as she leaned back, putting her hands behind her head. “Yeah, I get that. Your friend though, he’s bit of a creep.”
“Don’t say that about Lenrick,” Domitor snapped, scowling at her.
Floria just blinked at him in confusion, then shrugged, “okay, sorry.”
He looked away from her, making it clear he didn’t want to speak further with her.
She tapped the table in front of herself as her right foot bounced, “So…”
With a sigh, he looked at her.
“You know any good jokes?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“What about funny stories, got any?”
“Zero.”
“Eh, want to play twenty questions?”
“No.”
“Okay, want to play any kind of game?”
“No.”
“Uh… do you draw a lot?”
“Sure.”
“Oh! Like what? How good are you at drawing?” She asked, finally getting a positive answer out of him other than a negative one.
This caused him to roll his eyes as he pulled out his drawing notebook and slide it across the table to her. “Don’t damage it.”
She smiled widely as she took the notebook and opened it up, flipping through the drawings. “Oh… damn, I wasn’t expecting…”
“Yeah, hit me with your best insult,” he grumbled, sitting back and rubbing his face.
“These are amazing!” she exclaimed, flipping the book around to show him one of his drawings. It was one of him covered in badass armor and weapons. “The details! How long did this take?!”
He smiled sheepishly, not used to others actually showing an interest in his art. Let alone complementing it. “That one? Erm… an hour?”
“One hour?!” She asked, flipping to a blank page and slid it back to him. “Draw me! Please!”
This caught him off guard even more as he shakily took the pad and a pen in his wing tip. “You sure? I’ve never drawn someone like this…”
“Just get my best angle,” she joked as she jumped up on the table and struck a pose, both of her hands in her pockets as she stared straight up. “Make me look all cool and shit!”
Leaning back, he began to draw, his pen gliding and tapping away at the notebook. It didn’t take him long before he had a sketch of her drawn. “Got it.”
“Whoa?! Already?” She asked as she jumped down into the booth again, holding out a hand. “Lemme see!”
“Don’t laugh,” he said as he handed it over to her. He’d drawn her as she was, but he’d added a few details to her to make her look more badass.
Her shoulders slumped as she examined the drawing, which caused him to frown as he thought she didn’t like it.
“How did you do this so quickly?” she asked, her voice giving away nothing.
“Practice,” he muttered.
She grinned and looked at him, “this is the best picture I’ve ever seen of myself.”
“It is?” he asked, eyes going wide.
“Sure is! Most camera’s make me look ugly and like a kid, but you captured my matured self in all its glory!” she exclaimed as she kept looking at the picture.
The compliment and praise for the drawing brought a wide smile to his face as he leaned forward, “if you want, I can do a fully detailed and colored one. It’ll just take longer.”
“Yes please!” she said, handing it back to him. “And while you do that, I’ll draw you!”
“You’re an artist too?!” He asked happily.
“Nope! I suck, but I want to return the favor!” she laughed, causing him to laugh as well.
He pulled out another notepad, one he hadn’t used yet, and passed it to her, along with some pens and pencils. “Okay, deal. I’ll draw you in full detail in exchange for a drawing of me.”
“You got it, dude!” she said, snatching up the supplies and beginning to draw away at the page.
Domitor relaxed in the seat as he began to draw as well.
For once, things were going his way. He might have just made a new friend as well!