2018-08-09: Burning Bridges

From Dream Chasers
(Redirected from 2018-08-09:Burning Bridges)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
  • Cutscene: Burning Bridges
  • Cast: Malfi, Yarobeleedt
  • Where: West Nota
  • Date: 2018-08-09
  • Summary: Malfi comes to a disturbing realization while recuperating from fighting Ida on the Nota Bridge. Yarobeleedt barely clings onto life.

Note: Takes place directly after 2018-08-09:Clash_on_the_Big_Bridge but before 2018-08-11:Ammy_and_the_Chocolate_Factory. Note 2: Thanks to Yarobeleedt for helping to write.


THIRTY MINUTES AGO:

"Adlehyde," Ida says, to Malfi. Her voice is a low hiss, metallic and hollow but impressive-sounding all the same. "Your feigned ignorance brings shame to your people, and whatever martial line taught you. Die on your feet if you have any honor in you."

NOW:

It's not much to look at, this old, abandoned warehouse in West Nota, not far from Nota Bridge -- dusty, derelict, bursting with spiders, rife with broken windows, and ripe for breaking into.

Which two people have just done, seeking shelter from the rain and a safe place to heal. Both are Metal Demons. One, a yellowish slug-naga thing, is wrapped in a metal cocoon of his own making and deep in a regenerative torpor - the only signs of life at all being intermittent whining noises. The other? Well, the other is indistinguishable from a human -- for the moment -- save for the quicksilver blood drenching her body and clothing, and still seeping from a triple barrage of bullet holes in her torso. Two would've been fatal had her vital organs not twitched aside in time.

That had been a hard fight. A feeble-looking human(?) woman had not only put Yarobeleedt near death, she had lifted him and swung him around on a girder -- something even his current companion couldn't. What kind of person could do that? Humans could draw on extreme powers sometimes, Malfi knew, and you couldn't judge them by looks. Malfi had seen a few like that. Humans barely past the larval stage wielding sorcerous might. Frail-looking cripples using ARMs. Kung fu grannies.

No, you definitely couldn't evaluate humans by their looks!

Malfi checked to make sure Yarobeleedt was still clinging onto life, then shucked off her soaked and sodden clothing. Some of it was rain, some of it was blood, most of THAT her own. She segued into her true form with a grunt of relief: squishing mass was always uncomfortable, and in her case, it made her itch abominably. She fished a blanket out from her backpack to cinch around her. She had a spare change of clothes, but they were sized for her human disguise, not her real self. The blanket would have to do. This warehouse might be old and dirty, but at least it was dry. With any luck no one would come poking around until she and Yarobeleedt were long gone.

She sat on the dusty floor -- no furniture was available -- and examined her wounds. They were healing apace, as were the burns. Thank Mother for regeneration! The woman on the bridge had been a tough opponent, manifesting powers Malfi didn't understand.

Plus she had a graverobber ARM. She profaned the honored dead. Dean, Malfi's only human friend, had called the dangerous woman "Ida." Whoever she was, this Ida, she was capable of taking on two Hyadeans and several formidable humans at once, with a decent chance of beating them.

And she had a grudge against the Hyadeans for Adlehyde.

Adlehyde. Your feigned ignorance brings shame to your people, and whatever martial line taught you.

Feigned ignorance, Mother's eyes. Malfi knew about Adlehyde -- she'd been there, after all. It was her first spectacular failure, and a burden of shame to this day. Her monsters, shorn of their control collars, had deserted in droves, with a few turning on her, instead of slaughtering the humans like they were supposed to. She'd spent the whole battle trying to recapture them, and of the twoscore troops she sent out was only able to retrieve six.

It had earned her a reprimand later. She didn't like to think about it.

Shame to your people, and whatever martial line taught you.

Was that part true? Was Malfi a disgrace, no better than a Tainted? She'd lost to humans more often than not...and would've lost to Ida, too, most likely, had Ida not fled. She would've died in obscurity here on the Old Moon, without even being recycled.

Die on your feet if you have any honor in you.

Translated, this was the oldest, most traditional way of declaring a duel to Hyadeans. Was this a coincidence? If not, this Ida knew more of Hyadean culture and mores than any human had a right to. But why would she issue a challenge and then retreat? Was it because she hadn't heard the customary response ("One of us will")?

Malfi didn't think so. No, Ida must've been showing off her knowledge, realizing, perhaps that it would mystify the two Metal Demons she was fighting. She wanted to feel superior.

Malfi had to find out just how deep that knowedge went.

Only next time she'd bring more reinforcements!

A grating set of noises rasps loudly from the cocoon. Yarobeleedt gibbers frightened half-, even fourth-formed murmurings. Great, he's even found a way to be annoying in his sleep!...