Star Guardians: A New Era

[Skillfulness]

Zoe made her way towards Violet to check in on things with her. She secretly hoped the one, watery Guardian boy was following after her so she could give Violet a good challenge. Two Guardians shouldn’t be too difficult for her to fend off and she wanted to watch what unfolded. The Lamb and Wolf Guardian was strange so she wanted to learn more about them, but also had a devious plan forming.

Zoe, Violet sent her mental message. There's a civilian here. This doesn't seem part of the plan. Well this was a development. Zoe hurried her pace without answering Violet. Let her stew and see what happens. A touch of chaos was always something delicious.

When she arrived at the clearing, the Lamb and Wolf guardian was stalking her Corrupted Guardian. They were decidedly distracted so Zoe locked eyes with Violet and made a shush motion. Concealing a giggle, she silently snuck up on the spiritual duo while revealing a large, magical star for a weapon. Squinting briefly, she saw what she wanted to see and grinned. Bringing up the glowing, purple energy she swiftly struck down, finding her mark.

An invisible tether was broken between Lamb and Wolf. Zoe hadn’t hit flesh, but had hit some conceptual, fundamental property of the poor Guardian. The effect wasn’t immediately clear, especially to those who were merely an audience. The Guardian had frozen, aside from the gentle swaying of Wolf’s tail. Staring at one another, horror grew in their widening eyes.

“Lamb are we…”

“Separated?” Lamb finished the statement, but flinched and reached out towards Wolf. Zoe laughed aloud now and clutched at her stomach. Heads turned towards her and she wiped a tear from her eyes for laughing so hard.

“Oh delightful! This worked out so much better than I’d hoped!” She floated in a lazy circle and chuckled between words. “I can already feel the mounting despair, little Lamb and Wolf. It won’t be long before you’re mine, the First Light can’t protect you forever.”

The Guardians looked at each other and wordlessly came to the same conclusion. With Lamb leading the way, the two ran deeper into the woods. Their story would continue to unfold in a more private space. But, there was still an innocent girl watching things play out from the edge of the woods.

“Well well, are you not a Guardian, young one?” Zoe asked gently. Her tone had shifted to something soft and manipulative. This would be just icing on the cake to stir more trouble between her Corrupted Violet and one of the meddling Guardians of this town. There was so much she hoped to accomplish with this little group and so much time to toy with them.

 

[Vern]

Clare
Woods around Hospital

When the flames came, Clare reacted quickly, springing away from the direction of the light and hiding herself behind a tree. The burst of light faded to reveal an unfamiliar woman stood in the clearing, blue fire burning on the pair of large gauntlets she wore. There was something vaguely familiar, yet also foreign about her outfit. It reminded Clare of Masaru’s.

“I’m not scared of you!” The woman yelled, sounding aggravated, “You don’t ****ing know me.”

In Clare’s experience, people who felt the need to say things like that tended to truly feel the opposite way. Denial was in many ways equal to admittance. People were strange like that — she didn’t really understand it.

Either way, things were beginning to get interesting. Clare shifted her position to get a better look at the woman, and for a brief second the path of their eyes seemed to cross. Immediately, Clare ducked away.

Had she been seen?

Maybe she ought to reveal herself — after all, she’d never seen anyone other than a star guardian use these kinds of powers, and that connection implicitly involved her in the situation. It wouldn’t be out of line for her to step in and attempt to mediate.

On the other hand, so much remained unknown. There were dangers — Leona had told her about things of that nature, guardians corrupted by darkness, pure souls warped into evil. The woman’s dark outfit, which was at once guardian-like and also somehow not quite right, further hinted that she could be one such person. But from what Clare has seen she felt quite normal, very much human.

Before she could figure out how best to proceed, another newcomer appeared in the clearing, chuckling at something - a small girl with a very eye-catching mane of starry hair.

Unlike the woman, there was definitely something markedly sinister about her. Clare felt herself shiver slightly. She suddenly realised that the oppressive air from before had dissipated. The woods felt emptier now. Those two voices from before, Wolf and Lamb, had also ceased speaking — it wasn’t hard to connect the dots.

The girl was dangerous.

But Clare didn’t feel particularly afraid. Rather, it felt like a whole new side of the world had revealed itself to her. She wanted to see more of it, this beautiful and thrilling world within which she’d found a heartbeat. Like a starving man faced with a banquet, she wanted more — to see more, to know more, to feel more.

So she stepped out from behind the tree.

“Well well,” said the creepy girl, “Are you not a guardian, young one?" Her voice was laced with a familiar soft and gentle tone. It was the tone of someone who wanted to appear nice but felt no goodwill, a well-crafted mask with nothing behind it. It may have slipped past a normal person, but Clare knew it.

After all, it was almost the only tone she ever spoke in.

Clare walked up to the woman and the girl, stopping a respectful distance away. "Yes, I am," she replied, giving the two of them a friendly smile, "Forgive my directness, but who are you?"

 

[Monster Guy]

Conner Waters/Riptide
Streets of Athenbury/Forest

The numbers of Voidlings were going down, and Conner was proud of his accomplishment. “Hell Yeah!” He exclaimed with grin as he raised his trident, and a wave of water swept a bunch of them away. He managed to handle these voidlings all by himself. No teammates needed. “If only they could be here to see this now!”

Then, a portal appears out of nowhere, and a gray skinned girl with purple hair steps out of it, and starts taunting Conner. The Star Guardian had no idea who this girl was, or how she even knew Conners name. He shot a stream of water in her direction, but she just stepped into a portal, and dodged it completely. She appeared again, and offered to give him more power, then disappears again before even explaining what she meant. He heard the sound of giggling directly above him, but there was no one there that he could see, and the distraction gave an opportunity for a stray Voidling to attack, knocking him to the ground in the process.

As he rose to his feet, he hears the girl’s voice from behind him, and she taunts him again before reappearing further away, and skipping off into the forest. Conner was left standing there wondering what she was talking about. Who was this girl, was she the source of these Voidlings attacks? And what did she mean by more power? Conner had questions, that he wasn’t going to get the answers to by just standing there, and he flew off after her.

He wandered through the forest trying to find this girl, and for a while, it seemed like she had vanished amongst all the trees. He soon came to a clearing where he came across the gray girl, another woman dressed like she was a guardian too, though she looked different from his group. Clare was also here... for some reason, and the gray girl was taunting her now... He thought... He wasn’t sure... He clenched his trident. “Hey! What the hell is going on here?!”

—-

Oliver Cobalt
Diamond
Warehouse

Oliver laughed out loud. It seemed like this battle was going his way. At least until reinforcements arrived. “Aw, what’s the matter? A few sparkly diamonds getting to be too much for you to deal with by yourself?” Whatever, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. One of them was flat out insulting. They really sent out a child cosplaying as a witch to challenge him? That was just rude. She whacked away a bunch of his diamonds with a lollipop hammer. That would no doubt keep her busy.

The boy that had come along was much more interestin. He flew up the boy who was trying to assist the woman and had summoned fireballs into existence. “Oooh, I was hoping I would get to meet a cute boy today.” He looked him up and down, and frowned. He looked a little to edgy for his tastes, but he had potential. “Ugh, I hate the hairstyle, but you’ll do I suppose.“ He tapped his staff on the ground, and a bunch of crystal spires popped out of the ground beneath his feet.

 

[Sketchie]

Violet MacKellen
Six
Woods in Athenbury​

Violet stood still, waiting for the Lamb and Wolf guardian to show themselves, waiting for Zoe to respond, waiting for anything to strike at. Her breath was slow and controlled as the situation around her. But… something was wrong. What in hell was taking so long? No response, no attack, just flames burning around her. She was getting impatient, when she saw just the slightest hint of movement in the corner of her eye.

She swiveled around, gauntlets set aflame, finally meeting eyes with the guardians stalking her. She crouched for a head on attack… but stumbled when she saw what was behind Lamb. Her breath hitched in her throat as she watched Zoe raise her weapon up, and before she could do anything, Zoe had brought it down between the two guardians. Violet flinched. Of course nothing physical had been damaged, but it was clear in Lamb’s and Wolf’s eyes that something was wrong.

Violet often wondered if this all was really what she was made for. Zoe perpetually did things that Violet wouldn’t necessarily do, but there seemed no turning back now. She turned away, anger pricking at her soul as Zoe gleefully celebrated the Kindred’s disconnection. She could feel the guardian’s presence leave, but of course, the night couldn’t be over. There was still the child at the edge of the wood.

“Well well, are you not a Guardian, young one?” Zoe called out into the woods. Violet stiffened. She’d heard that voice before, one that drips with sweetness but hides malice and manipulation. She had hoped the child hadn’t heard, that maybe they would have run off during the whole affair with Kindred, but hope had never really been on Violet’s side.

“Yes, I am,” the girl replied as she slipped out of the shadows and into the clearing, still burning with blue embers. She gave a friendly smile, before continuing, “Forgive my directness, but who are you?”

Before either could answer, another blue guardian burst into the clearing. “Hey! What the hell is going on here?” he shouted.

“Yeah, Zoe,” Violet hissed, stepping in between the girl and her Corrupted Boss, “What the hell is going on here?” Her gauntlets were still crackling with flame, flickering with agitation. She was far more willing to fight the blue guardian than some teenager the First Light had enlisted far too early, but a terror deep inside of her knew that Zoe had no qualms with her burning both of them to ash. Violet could deal with the blue guardian later, she had to find some way to get the girl out of here.

~~~~~~~

Andrea MacKellen
Jinx
Warehouses​

The fight was getting tough. Andrea was experienced, and she knew she’d make it through, but it would definitely leave a mark coming home tonight. Crystals and bullets flew back and forth, wearing out both guardians, but Andrea knew she just had to hold out a little while longer…

“Look out!” a voice came from below. She snapped her attention to a dark crystal heading straight at her. She dashed out of the way as the crystal shot past her, missing her just barely. She looked down to where the voice came from, to see..

”Leona!” Andrea gasped. She looked at Kuro, an eyebrow raised. “Kuro, I told you that we could…” she started, annoyance at her tone, but when Kuro shied away bashfully with a quiet blubber, she knew she couldn’t stay upset at her little friend. “You’re right,” she smiled, nudging him with an elbow, “It would have been more fun this way anyway.”

“Fall back!” another voice shouted. She looked in its direction to see a guardian she’s not seen before sending a stream of candy from a lollipop hammer. Andrea giggled. That guardian had style! Another guardian, one with fire red hair who summoned matching firey will-o-wisps, had reached out to help with his whip at the ready.

The fire guardian had caught the corrupted guardian’s attention. “Ooh, I was hoping I would get to meet a cute boy today,” the corrupted guardian purred. Andrea smirked. So that’s your weakness, huh? Distracted by eye candy? She slipped away unnoticed, flying to the other side of the courtyard. It was if the corrupted guardian had painted a big red target on his back. “Ugh, I hate the hairstyle, but you’ll do I suppose,” he said as he tapped his staff on the ground.

Andrea braced herself on the ground, taking a deep breath. She never got to do this. A grin crept onto Andrea’s face as she bolted up into the air, pulling Kuro and Shiro into one big black-and-white cannon as wings unfurled from her back. Light started to spark out of the cannon as she readied her shot, aiming right for the corrupted guardian.

“CATCH!”

A black and white bolt of light came exploding out of the cannon, striking the corrupted guardian in the back before exploding glamorously with pink and red starlight. When the glitter cleared, the guardian was gone, a pile of shimmering stardust where he stood. “Woohoo!” Andrea shouted, both fists in the air. She laughed and cheered, hugging Shiro and Kuro close.

…Until she remembered she had an audience. Andrea froze, her face going as red as her hair as she looked over at the other guardians who had come to her aid. “Oh,” she squeaked, pulling on one of her pony tails as she awkwardly strode over to the others. She cleared her throat, straining to find her voice. “Um. Hi, Leona, long time no see,” she said with a chuckle, “I, uh, hope we didn’t bother you, Kuro just got spooked is all, must have pinged you. Um. Sorry about that.”