The Smokeless Flame

by BIGBLACKINTOSH

Nightmare part 3 (End of ark)

What was once white quickly became black. I somehow managed to land on my ass on the ground again and groaned. “Dammit, I just killed a giant fucking spider, I don't need this shit,” I shouted into the unlimited darkness that surrounded me. I quickly took the diamond sword off my back and got into a defensive stance. Last time I was in a place as dark as this, I almost got eaten and I was determined to not let that happen again. As I held the sword, I quickly thought, wait I don't have a sheaf, where the hell did this come from?

My train of thought was interrupted when Nathan suddenly appeared next to me. Nathan was, to be blunt, tall as fuck. Compared to me anyway. He stood at six foot even and had short black hair that flowed in the non-existent wind (which was pissing me off). He was wearing some kind of blue armor that I will admit looked kind of badass. Though what really caught my eye was the gauntlet on his left hand that glowed like an azure flashlight.

Nathan must of been asked confused as me because the moment he saw me, he jumped nearly a foot away. He calmed down and scowled when I started laughing hysterically. “What the hell are wearing?” I asked still laughing.

Nathan looked down at his armor and crossed his arms. He looked me up and down and made a sour face. “Says the one wearing gold armor,” he replied smugly. Gold was not something you’d be caught dead in when playing minecraft. Because you’d be dead.

I scoffed at the insult and stuck up my nose. “Its not gold, its diamond!” I retorted.

Nathan chuckled and looked around, as if searching for something. “Wheres Idilah and Nightheart?”

“Whoashit!” Nightheart yelled as he landed on the ground between us.

“Well that answers half the question.”

Nightheart uneasily got to his feet (hooves if you want to fight about it) and rubbed his throat. “Dammit this hurts,” he said to himself, his voice very hoarse (heh heh, hoarse). Nightheart had somehow changed the color of his fur during his stay here. Instead of the normal mix of blue and black, he was just plain old black. He suddenly noticed us and raised an eyebrow. I thought for sure he’d looked confused at our forms, but no he just sized us up.

He took long look at me, then at Nathan, He sighed coughing a bit. “Gh0st,” he stated pointing at me. He then turned to Nathan. “Crow?,” pointing at him. We both nodded. He nodded back and smiled. “Whatever you guys are, I’m glad to see a friendly face. What hell did you have to go through?” He asked, relieved.

“Well, I just killed a giant freakin spider of my nightmares. What did you do today?” I said smugly, dusting off my knuckles against my chest. What? Wouldn't you be smug if you faced your fear and stabbed it in the the face?

Nightheart chuckled, giving me his own smug grin. “Oh you know, just reduced my undead mom to ash,” he replied casually, taking out a box of cigarettes from his back pocket. He lit one, took a long drag and exhaled. “Have you guys seen Idilah yet?” Out of nowhere an arm came from behind him and grabbed his cigarette pack.

Nathan and I went into a defensive stance, me bringing out my diamond sword (which for some reason looked like a bastard sword) and Nathan brung up his open hand, which confused the hell out me until that azure light became brighter and a spike of blue rock wrapped around his hand.

Nightheart calmly stepped to the side to reveal a human girl. She had long, wet, black hair that stuck to her face and went down to her shoulders. Her skin was caramel brown and her face had hard, slim features and a scar adorned her chin along with a long on her right eye. She was wearing a long black jacket and a red shirt with writing I couldn't see. She also wore jeans that were sliced up at the thighs, as if someone had took a knife to them. She was about a head shorter than me and I would have laughed at that one fact if not for freaking terrifying look in her eyes.

Both of eyes peeked through her hair, as if under a veil and I got a look at pure horrifying terror. The right eye was completely calm, void of any feeling or emotion. It was just there to observe, nothing more. The left one however made me want to go back to the spiderweb and wrap myself into a MRE for the spider. There were three emotions that I could literally see; anger, resentment and torment. All those delightful qualities were focused on three points in that amber eye, as if they were three extra pupils.

The girl took the cigarette and held it expectantly in front of Nightheart’s face. “Light please?” she asked impatiently. Nightheart (you know what? I’m just going to call him Night) snorted absently in response, releasing a short torrent of flames. The cancer stick lit and the girl dropped it in her mouth, catching it by the filter. She happily breathed in half of the cigarette and picked it off of her black lipstick stained lips. While I was doing my examination, Night was conducting his own. Especially on her chest.

Yeah, he was not being subtle about that.

Wait...Black makeup, scars, eye that makes we want to curl up in a ball more than my greatest fear...

I put away my sword and stared at her, speechless. “Idilah?” I asked.

Nathan lowered his hands and the azure light disappeared. He smiled nervously. “Oh yeah. I forgot how scary you were,” he said casually.

The thing is, Idilah had always been scary. After the party where we both met her, we had stuck to each other like glue. Or as Idilah would constantly put it, “two midgets in a fat guys rib-cage.” But, as the first year in college went on, she just became more...Scary. It was the only way to describe it. Whenever we would all hang out together, she would fuss about herself for almost hours at a time, just trying to hide her scars. She told me about them once...

After threatening to cut my balls off if I didn't stop asking...

She finished the cigarette in another puff and threw it to her right. “Well, that was refreshing. So, what have you guys been up to in this fine hellhole?” she asked smiling.

“Killed the Enderdragon with lapis.”

“Stabbed a super sized spider in the face.”

“Um, da uh, um,” Night stuttered, still staring at her. At least he raised his gaze to her face.

She smirked and hid her face behind her hair bringing up her hand to his face. She then poked him right between his eyes, knocking him out of his stupor. He shook his head and looked back at her with an annoyed look on his face.

“Its nice to see you too dragon-boy. But lets get out of here first, then you can gawk at me,” she said winking her weird eye.

All of a sudden, the sky started rumbling, almost knocking us all down.

We all stumbled, desperately trying to stay on our feet. Nathan had no problem staying up, I however fell right on my ass. Idilah nearly fell too, but landed quite conveniently in Night’s arms. They were about to share one of those, “romantic stares” but then a voice boomed in the sky.

“You worthless nibblets! You could not have just stayed in you're dreams and be good little cattle. No, you rejected the fear I gave you and are now up and about, giving the trouble of working for my meal! But oh my little cattle, I assure you, I won’t starve!” the voice yelled. The voice was the same as the spider. It had the same voice that sounded like sharp nails on steel. Scratch that, going through steel. Slowly.

Thats about when our nightmares showed up for a visit.

Out of nowhere, four things came into view a few mater. My favorite arachnid that nearly killed me. A large black dragon as wide as a school bus and covered in black scales, most likely the Enderdragon. The third was something that only Deadspace would throw up if Deadspace visited a middle eastern country. The zombie-necromorph-THING, was dressed in a bullet hole riddled u.s. army jumpsuit holding two blood covered scimitars. The weird thing was the fact that I recognized him. His body was bulging with muscles that only a soldier would have. Also, his eyes the same color as Idilah’s eyes but were glowing like flashlights. The fourth was Nightheart’s mother but minus an arm, a leg and most of her face-scales, leaving nothing but scorched flesh. Ugh, I’m off meat for weeks when we get out of here, thought, readying my sword.

Wait, I thought. Who do I know that was a marine? And had Idilah’s eye color-Oh my god. That must be Idilah’s brother! She must have had to fight him to get here, I thought turning my gaze to Idilah, who was looking like a mix of murderous and absolutely excited. She was smiling wide, showing off her shark-like teeth, holding in her hand the ospian knife I seen her with her no matter where we went.

She licked her lips with anticipation. “So, what's the plan boys? Anime style smash up?” she asked, her voice nearly crackling with excitement.

“What do mean by that?” I asked, kind of confused.

“I mean we dream up a badass battlefield, get some good music playing and slice these pussies into niblets!” she shouted at me.

“Fine with me. Lets go with a city. I want to test an idea I’ve had since conjuring up this,” Nathan suggested, gesturing his lapis gauntlet.

“Can I pick the battlefield?” I asked eagerly. Whenever we would play fighting games I barely ever got to pick the field.

Nathan groaned. “Fine, but Idilah gets to pick the music,” Nathan tried to compromise.

I mimicked his groan. “But Idilah always ends up picking some japanese band we never heard of or screamo crap!” I complained.

“Um guys, I think we should pay attention to the army of fucking nightmares coming at us!” yelled Night, pointing at said nightmares running at us, screaming stuff we were too far to hear..

I quickly started thinking of places to fight. From the plentiful of games I’ve played and the few beautiful places I’ve been back on earth, there was only one place I could think of that would be perfect for battle.

I stabbed my sword into the unseen metal under my feet and rubbed my temples in faux intense thought as the world around us began to come into view. The dark but solid void under us became grey metal-like tile, almost digitizing its way into our reality. Within seconds, we on top of a flat-top building, air conditioners and vents popping up, along with a few wrecked grey buildings in the background. Each had a huge burning hole on the top or side of the building, looking similar to a cracked egg.

In other words, we were on firebase Vancouver, Canada.

Nathan scowled at me and flipped the bird. I smiled under my helmet, chuckling at his anger and at the fact the things we were supposed to be fighting had been blocked by a huge air conditioning unit, comically imprinting their angry faces into the metal. I’m loving this dream world.
The monsters quickly caught on and Night’s mother smacked the unit aside. Necro-Asad came charging for Idilah, flailing his swords around, screaming bloody murder. Night raised his hand into the air and his warhammer dropped into his claw as his limped very quickly towards him. Surprisingly, the Enderdragon took to the skies and started raining fireballs at Nathan. The spider however, jumped into the air and fire a large, organic ball of web at me.

Idilah started made a laugh that sound similar to the joker’s and slashed her knife to the side and the blade suddenly grew twice its size and turned into a of her own. She blocked Necro-Asad’s manic slashes and kicked him in the chest, sending flying into another air-conditioning unit. “Now this is a real fucking fight!” she laughed, raising her sword into the air.

Nathan quickly threw up his gauntlet and somehow a shield (made of what I suspected was more lapis) appeared and blocked the flames. He smiled and clenched his fist tightly and a dark-blue cloud appeared in the sky. The dragon dodged a barrage of lapis spikes, twisting and barrel-rolling out the way, only to crash into a slightly more intact building. Nathan fist pumped into the air, almost jumping.

Night screamed at his mother and unleashed a torrent of green flames that reminded me of descriptions of greek fire. His mother also released her own torrent of flames but was cut off by Night smacking her in the snout. Hard. When their flames met, Night was already advancing and caught her by surprise. Flesh went everywhere and Night turned up the pressure with his hammer, never stopping once with his swings.

Me? I simply sliced the ball of web in half, only to have the spider land right on my face. The moment he landed, I dropped my sword and started screaming. The spider started trying to get a good grip on me, biting at me with dripping fangs. “Get this thing off of me!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Suddenly, there was a flash and the spider stopped moving. Then he exploded in half, raining purple goo on me. “Bleh,” I said in disgust.

I looked up to see Idilah standing over me with a manic grin on her face. “Having trouble?” I was about to respond but she cut me off. “Well tough titties! Now get your ass up and help me with this necro-fuck,” she ordered, dodging another swing from Necro-Asad and returned with a swift swing to his face. He leaned back and took another swing at her, this time blocked by quick thinking and my broadsword. “Okay we are having a serious conversation when we get out of here,” I said, kicking him in the chest sending him back a few feet.

Necro-Asad screamed horribly and threw one of his sword at me. I ducked and realized that Idilah was still behind me. I turned to see Idilah holding the sword’s blade in her hand. Blood started dripping from her hand and her grin turned into a straight up frown and I saw why.

The end of the blade was right in front of her cheek...

“I’m,” she said. “Getting really tired of no one reading the fucking shirt!” she yelled opening her duster. Now that I could the writing on the shirt, I wanted to laugh and curl into a ball at the same time. Printed in ragged letters was the message, BITCH I EAT PEOPLE!

Idilah’s crazy grin came back and noticed that her skin was broken, fractured like loosely connected pieces of paper Her eyes glowed bright yellow and her jacket flew off behind her, forming leathery wings. She started hovering at least two feet above the ground, a dark aura surrounding her bare feet. She then let out a terrible scream and pure metal started playing from what seemed like the air. “Lets fucking go, fake!” she yelled, her voice turning something close to demonic.

She took both of her scimitars and crossed them over her chest, closed her eyes tight and returned them to her sides. “Barq Sayf...” she shouted, the scimitars lighting up with a crackling energy. I knew what was coming next and ducked behind a air conditioner, still watching the battle. “LIGHTNING BLADE!” She yelled, slashing both swords. Arcs of light and energy launched at the Necro-Asad, crossing in a X formation.

The zombie separated into four grizzly pieces of green, brown and purple flesh.

As all four pieces fell to the ground, Idilah laughed maniacally and dropped back down to the ground. I came from behind my cover and took off my helmet. “Idilah, what is wrong with you?” I asked concerned.

She ignored me and pointed to the Enderdragon raining fireballs onto Nathan and Night’s mother was doing the same to him. She turned back to me with determined look on her face. “We need to get out of here. I’ll tell you about my baggage later, but for right now, I need to get my frustrations out, Alright?”

I noticed her left eye was hidden behind her hair again, she also looked like she had calmed down. Nathan was having a hard time with Night’s mother and Night was definitely not used to an airborne opponent. I slipped back on my helmet and rested my sword on my shoulder. “Lets get crack’n.” Idilah smiled and revealed her right eye again, but this time she remained calm, the normal Idilah (or semi-normal) girl I’m used to. Then a wild, pained scream came from Night’s direction.

And her smile came back.
***
“Lucky shot!” I shouted from behind a convenient large white metal box. These things had saved my hide twice today, but now it seems I’m in the same position I as I am always...

Hiding from my mother...

“Come and face your punishment halfling!’ she yelled, successfully pissing me off again.

I wanted to returned the insult but hugged my arm in pain. The bitch had clipped my swinging arm and now I couldn't even swing a stick, much less a hammer. Speaking of which, was embedded in what I could call a sink in what used to be an office a few yards in front of me. When I got hit, the hammer flew from my hand, went through a window and into the sink. It would have been pretty cool if not for the undead dragoness behind me.

She was about to yell another insult when a cracking noise interrupted her, followed by the crash of a demolished walls. “STAY AWAY FROM HIM YOU BITCH!” yelled a loosely familiar voice.

“That can't be,” I said to myself, getting up. I got to my hooves and turned around, clutching my arm to see two beautiful things; my mother’s head in pieces...

And the demonic looking girl currently slashing said mother’s body apart like butter...

I stared in awe as she cut the body to pieces using two electrified swords and kicked apart the nibblets with her bare feet. By the time I limped to her, the dragoness’s head was a few yards to the right and the rest of her body was in a cleanly cut bloody pile.

“You okay?” Idilah asked plainly.

I jumped at her sound of her voice. It was at least a few decibels lower than I was used to and had a hollowness to it that scared the tartarus out of me. My knees started shaking and I swear I would have been sweating if my pours hadn't been destroyed by years of fire abuse. I couldn't figure out why I got like this when she was around. It annoyed me to no end but at the same time it let me know that my “attraction” to her as it were wasn't fear, it was...I don't know.

All of this ran through my head as continued to stare directly at Idilah’s weird but pretty eyes.

Her face turned a shade of red and she hid her face behind her hair. “W-What are you looking at?” she asked nervously.

I was about to reply but was interrupted by Crow. “I know you guys are trying to have your moment, but can you guys give us FUCKING HAND FIRST!” he yelled, throwing another blue spike at the dragon that looked even more terrifying than my mother. This dragon strafed across the skies and fired a volley of fire balls at Crow, him countering with blue spikes every time one came close to him. When each spike met a ball, they both shattered into nothing. One managed to get past him, missing Gh0st by an inch at the most. “You know it just occured to meet that I could be invisible right now,” he said, face-clawing.

Crow groaned. “Dammit! We need to-” he stubbled of his feet as the sky rumbled and turned a dark purple.

“Perhaps I’ve been a bit too lenient on you misbehavior. Perhaps its time I deal with you all myself. Prepare yourselves cattle, now I can show you TRUE FEAR!” The voice in the sky screamed.

Thats when the dragon stopped. Just, stopped mid air, completely still. Then pieces of meat started flying at the dragon from behind us, splatting against it like paint on a canvas. The entire being shrank into a small black ball.

We stared at the ball. completely confused about what it was supposed to be. “Well that was anti-” Crow started but was interrupted by the black ball exploding, forming a purple cloud. Two large clawed hands stretched out of the cloud, followed by long grey arms with strangely clawed elbows. What came out next, words couldn't even describe.

“HA HA HA HEHA! NOW YOU FACE ME! NOW I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOULS AND-” he stopped yammering his purple darkness filled mouth when he saw our agitated looks. “WHY DO YOU NOT COWER IN FEAR?! WHY AREN'T YOU FEEDING ME?!”

Idilah coughed loudly and grossly cleared her throat, putting her claws over her mouth. “BECAUSE SOME ASSHOLE IS YELLING AT US IN THE ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE AND WE’RE SICK OF HIS SHIT!” She yelled back, earning a chuckle from the rest of us. The creature continued to shout obscenities but we honestly just ignored him.

“So how are we gonna do this?” asked Crow, still staring at the...thing.

Suddenly, Idilah’s coat was gone and black leathery wings sprouted from her back. I stared at them with a mix of awe and envy. Ever since I was a little, I wanted a pair of wings. It was the main reason why my mom hated me so much back then up until her death. Back then I would have wanted wings to please her, but now I wanted a pair because they looked awesome. “Everyone imagine up a ride, we’re gonna bash this thing’s face in!”

Gh0st and Crow looked at each other and nodded. There was a flash and was appeared under them would weird me out until the end of my days. Gh0st and Crow were both seated on top of two pony size pigs with pegasus wings. With that image burned into my mind, I tried to imagine something to get me in the air. Duh! I thought to myself and I suddenly felt something growing out of my back. I looked behind me to see a leathery black appendage and attached to it, blue flaps. I had my wings

“WOHO!”

“FUCK YEAH!”

“WHOOT!”

“LETS DO THIS!” We shouted as we all jumped off the edge.

Flying was...Surprisingly not difficult. The moment I jumped off the edge, my back muscles started moving on their own, as if the my body was already made to have wings. If that was the case, then I was extremely glad for once I was dragon. Gh0st, Crow and Idilah were ahead of me, screaming battle cries as we all charged the...Thing. I pondered what I could call it and caught up with Idilah. She had manic smile that matched her wildly flowing hair. I almost wondered what her species might be but a bellow from the thing reminded me why I was so close to her right now.

“So what do we call this thing?” I shouted at her.

She looked back and me and replied. “Steven,” she said plainly but loud enough for me to hear.

Steven?

I shook my head in confusion and nearly got knocked out of the sky by a lightning bolt. I looked ahead to see the thing-I mean, Steven, throwing lightning bolt, balls of fire and brimstone and bolts of pure purple colored energy at us. In fact, it seemed the entire sky was raining projectiles at us at random. I narrowly dodged another bolt and a block of brimstone and looked back to Gh0st and Crow to see that they were still alive. Apparently, pigs maneuvered as well as pegasi.

I looked ahead and immediately stopped, along with the others. We were now about 20 yards away from Steven’s face. He bellowed and shouted at us, nearly blowing out my ears. Despite that, we ignored him and huddled up.

“Um, how do we plan on taking this thing out?” I asked.

Idilah smiled manically. “Nathan, Mitchell...You guys remember the song of awesomeness?” she asked in an accent I didn't recognize.

Crow and Gh0st looked at eachother for a moment, as if pondering what she was talking about. Then they both smiled as bad as Idilah. “Oh, we remember. Just give us a stage,” Crow replied, excited.

“Wait, what's “the song of battle?” I asked, confused.

They ignored me and turned back to the ugly thing Idilah called steven. They circled around him, Crow and Gh0st out of sight and Idilah practically in front of the thing’s nose. “Hey Steven!” she yelled.

Steven flailed his arms in anger, nearly hitting Crow and Gh0st. “I KNOW NO STEVEN INKLING! NOW PREPARE FOR YOUR-”

“Do you like my sword?” she asked holding up her knife-sword.

Crow and Gh0st suddenly appeared at her side. “Do you like my sword sword, my diamond sword sword?”

A awesome music riff that I never heard started playing. “You can not aford-ford my diamond sword sword!” they all sang in unity, pointing at Steven. Steven leaned back in surprise. I’m sure he was like me at the moment...

Haven't a clue what the tartarus is going on...

They all moved closer to him, their swords pointed at either sides of his bony cheeks. “Even if you could-could, I have a patent!” they sang, stabbing said cheeks. Purple anchor leaked from out of the small wounds. I’m sure Steven felt them, but was like me, entranced by the song.

“No one else can make a sword exactly in this manner-manna!” They sang, practically gouging out his cheeks. “Welcome to my manna-manna! But I can-canna-canna, Swing-Swing-Swing my sword-sword. Whenever I get bored-bored, I can swing my sword sword! I can swing my sword!” And sure enough they did, wildly, managing to tear each side of the creature’s face to shreds.

Steven didn't react, he only listened...

Idilah got back in center of vision again, staring at him provocatively, her weird eye sparkling. “Please do not ignore. Do you like my sword?” She asked slicing across his face. “Ha! That was rhetorical. You know I am the oracle. I know you like my sword. Its made of freakin diamond!”

“I can swing my sword-sword!” yelled Gh0st, literally slicing through Steven’s jawline.

“Because I am the lord-lord!” Crow yelled from his side.

Idilah raised her sword high, as if worshiping it. “Lord of Diamond sword!” at that point, Steven’s jaw had been completely sawed off and had fell into the dark abyss below. Idilah’s manic smile came back and she charged straight at Steven’s forehead, embedding her sword right between his eyes. Steven screamed but Idilah’s sword suddenly glowing bright red...

And then everything went black...
***
At some point in time...

“So what's the plan amigo?” asked Terk.

Terk and the twins, were still resting in a pink grove of flowers. Boom was in too much pain to move and her wing wasn't the only thing that got hit by the magic bolt. Her entire first side, from her wings to her forehooves were completely numb. At first glance, it would seem like she was shivering from being cold, but it was really because her muscles were spasming without her knowledge.

Tick held his sister tight. “I don't know. I don't know if we should move her or not, but we need to get these supplies back to the ship. Did you get some of the chimera meat?” he asked, worried.

Terk held up the meat sack they had been using. “I got it and an idea. I grab all our food, take it back to the ship and force Herpy to bring out that special boat he’s been working on,” he suggested.

Tick looked back at his shivering sister, trying to think of a better plan. If Terk left, that would leave him and his crippled sister vulnerable for any big creature in the shadows to pounce on them. That and Herpy was extremely protective of his project. On the other hoof, with Boom unable to move, they would need something to transport them.

Tick grit his teeth. “Alright go, but hurry up! Boom needs a doctor. Soon,” he ordered.

Terk nodded and flew off into the sky. Tick looked back to his twin. Her shivering had stopped but he was in no doubt she was still in pain. Don't worry Boomy, your gonna be fine, he thought. After an hour of waiting later Tick heard a rumbling under his hooves. He stayed prone and looked up in the sky to see it had blackened in a perfect circle over a spot a mile away from where he and his twin were. Thunder and lightning laced through that single spot Wait, isn't that the direction where Idilah’s group went? he thought to himself.

A black speck in the clear part of the sky pulled his attention away. The black spec tuned out to be a boat, a boat that Tick and Boom got into trouble for asking about and eventually trouble for touching. The boat was blue, the sides painted in feathered pattern and at the nose of it was the yellow beak of a griffon. Ballists were attached to the sides and wierd metal tubes came out the back of the boat, glowing red.

Tick had asked what or who the Falcon was once. Herpy had angrily told me that the Falcon was once a griffon who had tried to bring order to the Dominion. Unfortunately, he hadn't really thought it out, as his brilliant plan for that was to punch everyone in the face. Very short story short, Falcon was eaten by a dragon a day after he announce to the world that he was going bring back honor to the Dominion. Herpy admired the Falcon, or at least what he tried to do, poorly and wanted to immortalize him someway.

The Falcon lowered into the pink flower bed behind Tick, crushing what could have been a wonderful snack and revealing the cockpit of the air-boat. The controls and passenger seats were all covered by a red metal roof, the front windshield fashioned to look like a set of eyes.

Terk crawled out of the cockpit though the back of the boat. He stretches his wings, clearly flustered. “Chingao dude! You gotta make a bigger cockpit, my wing hurt,” he complained.

Herpy got out of the boat too, flicking his right temple to straighten his eye and look at Terk sternly. “I would be more worried about Idilah’s group. That phenomenon just a mile away is where Idilah and her group went,” he said five times fast.

Terk raised an eyebrow. “How can you be sure? Dude, you weren't even sure where to go, how do you know that she’s even there?” he asked skeptically.

Boom shivered again, reminding Tick of more pressing matters. “Whatever the deal with Idilah is, Boom needs to get looked at. Lets get her on the ship and in the med bay, then we can go check out that inkblot in the sky,” he suggested forcefully.

Terk and Herpy looked at each other and nodded. Within an hour, they had loaded Boom onto the Falcon and back to the Sheytan. There, Tick made sure that she was tucked in a hospital bed with as much painkillers she was allowed to have.

Tick took an elevator line to the forge room and found Herpy and Terk strapping on Herpy’s body mounted crossbows. Once Tick thought about it, the ship’s crossbows looked a lot like Herpy’s. He asked Herpy about that as he strapped his on. Herpy hurriedly replied he had gotten the idea from the Roamane kingdom, just as the SaddleArabians did this ship. After arming up, they piled into the Falcon and rushed toward the strange phenomenon.

As they approached the ziggurat (as Herpy called it), they noticed the streaks of lightning that were arking though the sky were different colors. A streak of blood red arched over a streak of plum purple. Herpy narrowly avoided a streak of lightning, gazing at them in wonderment. Terk slapped the back of his head and Herpy descended to the stairs of the ancient building.

The trio galloped through hallway after hallway in search of their captain. Though that could be said for only Terk and Tick, Herpy was behind them yelling at them to slow down. “We don't know what's in here! Slow-”

Terk was about to interrupt him but stepped on a pressure plate, stopping immediately. The ginat tile that would have been his next step opened up to reveal a pit of spikes. The ceiling over the same spot opened and more spikes extended into the pit. After that, even more spikes came down further down the hallway. Both traps closed and Terk turned to Herpy, embarrassed. Herpy slapped him on his temple. “Thats what happens when you don't listen to the genius. Now, lets figure out how to get past these traps-” Herpy was interrupted by Tick throwing one of Boom’s can grenades past his head. The grenade landed on the tile, activating the traps. When the pit opened and the spikes went down, the grenade exploded, destroying all the the spikes. The tile went back to position, creaking.

Tick trotted past the stunned griffons with a smug smile. Past the splintered remains of spikes, stairs descended down, the walls glowing with blood red and purple runes as the lightning in the sky outside. As the trio descended down, Herpy noticed the runes were almost like Idilah’s except these looked more focused on images fear and despair. At the bottom of the stairs, another hallway extended into a chamber. The hall glowed with more runes and the next room was flashing red and purple. Terk, Tick and Herpy exchanged nervous looks. They had no idea what was making those flashes nor a plan.

Terk screamed in exasperation. “Screw it!” Terk yelled, rushing into the room.

Tick facehoofed and trotted after him. “Dammit Terk, haven't we been over this?!”

“He doesn't learn quickly does he?” Herpy yelled, chasing after them both.

In the chamber, beyond the flashing light was four figures. Nightheart, Ghost and Crow were tied to the walls at the waist. Each one was fully awake and struggling agaist their bonds as they watch Idilah and another beast clash in power. The red energy was coming from Idilah’s intense flames going agaist a sketington like creature that resembled diamond dog who was shooting purple lightning. What managed to freak Tick out was the fact that this thing’s body was extending from a cloud! Both energies met each other the form of a wall.

Idilah looked strained, just holding her power at that point was taking all her concentration and even that was failing. Diamond dog cloud thing cackled in victory. “Did you really think you could defeat me? I have lived for centuries! I have corrupted and devoured the souls of thousands! All of them puny insignificant humans like you!” he continued to berate as his lighting started to push back Idilah’s wall of fire.

Nightheart looked over the trio of rescuers, anger and desperation on his face. “What the tartarus are you idiots waiting for?!”

Tick, Herpy and Terk shook their heads out of their collective shock.and readied their crossbows. Each one of them simultaneously fired a volley of bolts at the strange creature,not doing much damage but breaking his focus. The creature’s light stopped for only one second and Idilah took her chance and poured on the fire, engulfing the creature in blood red flames.

The creature wailed in pain, flailing its arms as Idilah closed the gap between them. She smiled wickedly, showing off her terrifying teeth. “You what makes all that bullshit invalid buddy? Friends with crossbows,” she said proudly, looking at Tick as he and the rescue team cut down her friends. Idilah’s fire started to intensify, the creature now practically drowning in it. It started to slowly recede into the cloud its body was coming from.

The bony creature cackled. “Fine then Jann, if I must submit my power, then I will give them to you, with interest!” he laughed, completely receding into its black cloud. After finishing its speech, the cloud immediately threw itself at Idilah with amazing speed. Idilah stopped her onslaught of flames and stared at the incoming ball of darkness, completely stunned and unmoving.

Without saying a word, Nightheart ran faster he thought possible and jumped to tackle Idilah out of the way. As he practically speared Idilah at the waist, the ball of darkness collided with them both, spreading across their bodies. By the time both of them had hit the ground, they were both encased in a dark goo-like substance. Everyone in the chamber watched as the red and purple runes that covered the walls start to fade and dim, resulting in most of the light left in the room coming from Idilah and Nightheart. Idilah was covered in more intricate purple-black runes than before, glowing bright enough to give light to the whole chamber. Nightheart was covered in dimly lit red runes. His runes looked conflicted, almost a jumbled mix of the runes that were a part of Idilah’s body.

As everyone stared in awe at the pair, a rumbling began above their heads, loud enough to shake them out of their stupor. As soon as he heard the rumbling Crow ran for Nightheart and slumped his unconscious body onto his back. “Mitchell! grab I.D and drape her over our backs. We have to get the fuck out of here! NOW!” he shouted at his friend.

Gh0st immediately went for Idilah unconscious form and did as Crow said. Together, they held the two extremely tall unconscious beings on their backs. Terk and Herpy were already galloping up the stairs before Crow finished his sentence. Tick stayed behind and made sure that the ones carrying the captain and her mate were steady and ready to go. As they galloped up the stairs and to the outside, the whole structure began collapsing, chunks and ancient brick rained behind them, encouraging their escape.

Tick turned around just in time to see Ghost and Crow collapse on the top of the ziggurat's stairs. Both were exhausted from carrying the two bodies. Ghost huffed. “These guys need to lose some damn weight,” he wheezed out.

Crow sighed. “Too tired to even make a comment-” The entrance to the ancient building collapse right behind them, showering them with more ruble. Crow strained to get up with the bodies on his back, along with Ghost doing the same. “Tick...Please tell me we have a ride?” Crow weazed.

Tick was about to reply but the loud humming behind him let him know he didn't need to. Herpy lowered the Falcon onto the platform and Terk poked his beak from out the back, staring back at Crow and Ghost’s stunned faces. Terk groaned. “Come on, we got two unconscious idiots who need a doctor, what are ya waiting for?! Andele, andele!’ he ordered.

Crow and Ghost quickly loaded Nightheart and Idilah onto the seats of the boat, making them lay close to each other. Crow and Ghost jumped in the air-boat followed by Tick. With a nervous claw, Herpy raised the Falcon and sped across the skies toward the ship, shaken by what he saw, along with everyone else on the airboat.

Author's Note:

So...That happened. Thank you for reading those who did. I may have to shorten chapters just a tad so that I dont' end up spending a month on just one chapter. With my current schedule, its fair to say I could gotten this out faster.

Comments

[mild hotsauce]

It seems good, just comb through for some basic spelling mistakes as well as word placement. Other than that, the chap. seems to be in order.

[Ninja x SpEd]

NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF IT WEREN'T FOR THAT INSIGNIFICANT BASTARD OF A UNICORN. -Your angry griffon Nathan.

[Inferno demon Dash]

Gods damn it, the hell did they fight? And duel weapons, always amazing, period. Bucking love all these OC's they are awesome, the romance with I.D and Nightheart is seriously impressive, I have a strange feeling something far more powerful is behind this....hmmm...what could it be though?

[Not_a_Brit]

TWO MIDGETS IN A RIBCAGE!!!!!!!! THE BEST BORDERLANDS REFERENCE I HAVE EVER HEARD!!!