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h4zardousch3micals · 10 months

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Performance Of A Lifetime - 1

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Alright, so:

1) I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG STUFF HAPPENED

2) I SWEAR THIS STORY ISN'T 90% DUDES LOL THIS WAS JUST A WEIRD COINCIDENCE

3) Despite the Fallen Stars inspiration, Loodvigg is not evil. He is baby. (Spoiler alert I guess but all the Celestials will be sympathetic in this bc I do not have the heart to make any of them evil, whether I have the heart to traumatize them is a different story...)

4) Yes I'm going to be throwing a bunch of oc's in because I can >:3

That's all I think

——

A warm sunset spilled lazily from the horizon, dyeing the usually blue waters of the Living Ocean a deep, honey-like amber. On the South-east coast of Plant Island, a hive of activity began to materialise as monsters of all shapes and sizes were drawn in by gleam of flickering red and yellow lights and the sound of carnival music. The excitement was far from unwarranted: it's not every day that the circus comes to town, especially not the renowned, voyaging Audrey's Intrepid.

Backstage, however, beyond the hypnotizing spiral of ducks swirling in a little pool and the dizzying dances of eye-bleeding colours, was alive with a different kind of anticipation - thrilling, exhilarating, tension as a dozen little monsters prepared for the most nerve-wracking hour-or-so of their lives, just a few days away.

Or, that was how it was supposed to go.

"This is ridiculous. I'm not doing this." Loodvigg snarled, the feathers around his neck bristling like an agitated cat. He wobbled on unsteady legs: the diving board felt so flimsy beneath his feet and the bucket he was supposed to land in looked as though it were miles away. He wouldn't dare admit it, but something about the incredible drop made his entire body shake with fear.

"Awww, come on 'Vigg! It'll be fun!" Glaishur called out, having to raise his soft voice to be heard from all the way down there. He stood next to the comically shallow pail with a big, goofy grin plastered on his face, apparently oblivious to Loodvigg's distain for the current situation.

"If you aren't gonna do it, why'd you climb all the way up there?" Attmoz added, jabbing an accusing finger in his direction.

"Uh," Oops. Probably should've thought about that. Loodvigg desperately dodged the question with a question of his own, "Why do I have to be the one to do this, anyway? Surely this is more Hornacle's thing?"

Attmoz rolled his eye, "Fennec wants us to learn what its like to do eachother's acts so we know what they're thinking during the performance."

"Yeah! So get on with it..." A voice came from the nearby rows upon rows of almost entirely empty seats. Oh, right, their trainer was so quiet and pathetic that Loodvigg had almost forgotten he was there at all. The Sox's dark blue ears were pinned back and his vermilion eyes darted nervously around the empty circus tent. If he was trying to sound commanding; it wasn't working.

Loodvigg peered down again and felt an involuntary shudder creep up his spine.

"It's not that bad!" Glaishur explained, "Just close your eyes and pretend you're just walking down some stairs."

"If you're scared we can help get you down—" Attmoz added with an almost smug smirk."I AM NOT SCARED!" Loodvigg snarled, feathers puffing up from humiliation disguised as rage and causing both monsters to flinch. Almost immediately, he felt a pang of guilt strike his heart. He wanted to apologise, but a growing sense of shame made the words catch in his throat.

"Prove it then!"

Glaishur elbow nudged the air monster disapprovingly, "Attmoz, don't be mean!"

"Ugh, fine!" Loodvigg put his hands up surrender, "Whatever, I'll do it!"

There was probably a better way to word that - one that didn't involve taking the plunge both literally and figuratively - but it was too late for that now. Attmoz leans back slightly and folds his arms; Glaishur give him a reassuring thumbs up.

"Well, here goes nothing..." Loodvigg whimpered, taking a step forward and letting gravity do the rest of the work.

SPLASH!

For a moment, everything seemed almost peaceful. Loodvigg could hear sounds, but the rippling and bubbling of the water made everything distant and fuzzy. His stomach stung where he'd directly struck the surface of the pool, but the cool water was almost soothing against it. It was comforting, in a strange backwards sort of way.

And then, in an instant, it was over. he felt two sets of arms plunge into the oversized pail and drag him out with terrifying efficiency. He coughed and spluttered; his lungs burned from the cold water that intruded into his throat and his feathers clung awkwardly to his skull, making him feel small and weak. He was about to crawl away, to go find a nice dark corner to hide in and sulk, when an unexpectedly joyful voice caught him off guard:

"Woah! That was awesome!" Glaishur cheered. When Loodvigg blinked the water away from his eyes, he could see that the cold monster grinning from ear to ear; eyes wide and sparkling from admiration and excitement.

"...It was?" He wheezed between hacking up blobs of water.

"Yeah! You hardly moved a muscle the whole way down; you looked so badass!" Attmoz clarified.

It was probably best to just let them believe that was intentional, "Oh, yeah. It was."

"Good job, kid. I'll let Audrey know about this." Fennec approached them and said with a happy saxophone noise, well, that and an odd whistling from the cracked key on his back.

"Audrey?" He echoed, eyes lighting up at the possibility. Though neither him nor his friends had ever met the elusive ringmaster, the other performers described her as a powerful, almost otherworldly figure. To be specifically pointed out to her as special - what an honour!

"Yes, she'll be very pleased to know everything is going smoothly." He replied, his gaze was still flickering towards every little noise but now his lower eyelids were creased upwards in a slight smile.

"Wow... Lucky you!" Glaishur squealed excitedly.

Loodvigg was just about ready to slink into a cave and sleep for an entire century but, as usual, Attmoz just had to have the last laugh, "But can you do it again?"

"OH, COME ON!"

—

At the edge of the moving island the circus resided on, Scaratar studied the ripples of the water as the sun finally disappeared into the sea. A ladybird landed beside her, skittling and scuttling on its search for food, and she took the time to gently pet its smooth little wing cases before it flew away.

This serene moment was promptly interrupt by Loodvigg storming in - muttering something about how annoying a certain air monster was - and flopping down beside her. He resembled a cat that had gone outside during a thunderstorm: his expression was downtrodden and furious and his hair (normally painstakingly slicked back into place) was wild and a little frizzy.

"Woah, you alright?" She asked, unable to contain a few giggles, "You look a little... drenched?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He grumbled and covered his face with his webbed talons.

"Sheesh, okay."

Neither said a word in response and they stayed like that for quite some time: Loodvigg was too worked up to be interested in conversation and Scaratar knew to give her friend space. Eventually, Scaratar picked up one of the Circus' promotional posters and inspected it carefully. Loodvigg opened one eye, curious but not having the patience or energy to move much else.

"Why do you have that?" He eventually asked, "Where did you even get one of those? Didn't they all get sent out?"

"Uh, I got it from the pile before Fennec and Copper went to put them up around the Island. I don't know why, it just felt right."

"Oh," Loodvigg hoisted himself up by his arms and peered over at the poster, reading it out loud in an unamused tone, "New from Audrey's Intrepid, sixteen years in the making, marvel at the all new: CELESTIALS - A dramatic retelling of our world's most ancient history!"

"Well, you sure look like you need some Chapstick, don't ya?" Scaratar chuckled, pointing to a monster which resembled Loodvigg - only much older, much uglier and (as she described) much more dehydrated.

"I know, right?" Despite his exhaustion and grumpiness, Loodvigg couldn't help but crack a small smile, "And what's this? I don't exactly recall you having giant butterfly wings for ears."

"Actually, those are moth wings." She corrected.

"Close enough!" He rolled his eyes, feigning annoyance.

"Seriously though, wonder why they can never get the posters to look right."

He shrugged, "Maybe it's to make us look cooler?"

"...Because this looks cool!" Scaratar chirped sarcastically, shoving the poster in his face again which caused them to laugh out loud all over again.

"You have a point. Maybe we should ask Fennec, or one of the other performers..."

"Yeah, we should." She agreed, but the idea would soon be given up on as Scaratar's gaze shifted back to the distant sea. She suddenly asked, "Do you think there's more out there?"

Loodvigg blinked in suprise, "Of course there is. You've seen the other islands when we've landed there, even if they didn't let us put on the show 'cause we weren't ready yet, you must've at least gotten a glimpse?"

"Yes, I know. I meant... Do you think there's more out there - for us?"

Loodvigg considered the idea, "Well, if there was, surely Fennec would've told us?" Practice, practice, practice was all they'd ever really known, surely it was important if their trainer put that much focus on it?

"I suppose..."

"Do you... not like what we do?" He asked hesitantly, almost afraid of the answer, "Cause if you don't I can ask Fennec to change—"

"No, it's not that! I just...

I just wonder sometimes..."

#My singing monsters #Msm #Performance Of A Lifetime AU #Arrow Authors #Notes for people who read the tags:#Idk exactly how old the Celestials are supposed to be in this but #The older ones (Furnoss Glaishur Syncopite Scaratar Torrt & Attmoz) are 13-16 #And the younger ones (Hornacle Blasoom Plixie) are about 8-12 #And Galvana and Vhamp are probably about 2 (or whatever age a kid is talking in full sentences)#.#I'm getting paranoid about this being too close to fs again #So if it is just like tell me to knock it off and I'll take this down #..#Pretty sure I mentioned this in the thing but Fennec is a Sox #Who's eye and crystals are red due to genetic mutation #He's basically the 2nd in command of the entire circus #But he's real nervous and jumpy and doesn't really know how to put his foot (paw?) down #I wonder why...#...#Also as usual all the oc's names are dumb jokes so have fun figuring those out #Also also I know I'm talking too much #BUT #The other kiddos aren't just in the background they will do stuff #Except Syncopite I kinda forgot about them sorry

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iblue-kitzune · 4 years

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Of Rising Calamities Beyond the Cosmos: Chapter 10

A/N: And now we have arrived at the final chapter guys! This one is a bit special because it serves as both a regular epilogue (NOTE: There’s a bit of time-skip in here just to let y’all know) and a Halloween chapter, so it’s a half-and-half kind of deal if you want to look at it that way.

So, with that out of the way now, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! Happy Halloween everyone!

Droplets of water fell from the air and onto the rocky floor below, which was littered with puddles in every direction Jane looked. And the young woman took care to avoid stepping in one as she walked deeper and deeper into the darkness, a single blue flame lit in the palm of her hand to light her path up ahead.

“[Tell me again why are we exploring this dingy and damp dungeon?]”

“[Jane said she wanted to investigate this place a little bit more thoroughly this time.]”

“[Then why did she send a clone in place of herself and have the three of us accompany it?]”

“[Maybe she thought the monsters and wild animals wouldn’t dare approach her at the sight of us being by her side? I don’t know! I’m not exactly a mind reader or know the woman’s thoughts like you two think I do just because I spend more time with—]”

“Raiden! Gale! Inferno!” the three great spirits went quiet at the sharp voice of the clone and looked up. “I can hear you three you know...despite your whispering,” the trio sweat-dropped and turned their heads away from the moody half-spirit.

‘Finally...’ Jane let out an inaudible sigh when her great spirit companions switched to a different topic. Thank god for that. She didn’t have to listen to either of them complain anymore—even though most of it came from Raiden.

But she wasn’t focused on that. Right now, she just wanted to pass this section of dungeon and get to the next level.

And sure, it’s been a while since she’s last been down here, but it’s not like Jane had forgotten the layout of the cavern.

The floor above her, she knew by heart now. This one, however, not so much.

‘All the more reason to check it out.’

When the young woman found this cave two months ago and started to explore it, she made sure that she memorized all of the pathways and secret crevices in this area—well this floor at least, before she left. But now that there weren’t any pressing issues at hand here or any type of commotion happening outside of the cave, she was free to investigate this place without worry for the time being.

There was just so much energy she could feel in here, and so many shiny objects she could see around her, twinkling within the cracks embedded into the walls, and ceiling. All of them had an iridescent glow to them, and all of them were glowing a different color—from golden white, seafoam green, and baby blue to periwinkle, alexandrite, and coral pink. Any one of these could a rare item or ingredient for something; however, Jane wasn’t so sure about that.

‘Maybe I should take a look first.’

The young half-spirit stopped to pull out an empty transparent container with a handle on the top, and set it on the ground. She kneeled, and with her free hand, Jane tapped on it. A small section of the container glowed white and opened up with a chilling swoosh. Then she carefully stuck her fireball inside before pulling her hand back out, watching the hole close up and disappear.

Satisfied with her work, she moved away from her makeshift lantern and stood halfway up, making sure to crouch on the balls of her feet. And once she did, the clone of Jane bounded high into the air with just a single leap and latched onto one of the stalagmites hanging from the ceiling.

‘Wow!’ her eyes turned into stars at the sight of many items and gems staring at her right in the face. ‘There’s so stuff...huh?’ she trailed off with a silent gasp. But that didn’t last long as the look of excitement entered her golden brown-amber eyes, and replaced her awe.

‘Oh my god! Is that what I think it is?!’

She was in heaven right now, and rightfully so because she could see a bunch of stuff on the ceiling and higher end of the walls ranging from bottle based items:

Holy Bottle, Dark Bottle, Life Bottle, Panacea Bottle, and Syrup Bottle

To tool based items:

Banrea, All-Divide, Hourglass, Spectacles, Dried Peels, and Goat Horn

And medicine based items:

Lemon Gel, Melange Gel, Miracle Gel, Pine Gel, and Elixir

It was hard to believe that she was seeing all of this in one place since they would normally be spread out throughout the cave, or just be hidden in some obscure spot no one would bother to check, especially if it’s not sticking out in the open. But Jane wasn’t like others, and she wasn’t the type to pass up on stuff like this just sitting out here.

She was like a collector of sorts, and sometimes she likes to stock up on these items for future use. And whatever’s left that she doesn’t use, she mixes them together—much to the surprise of her friends who thought she was crazy for doing something potentially dangerous like that.

To her and everyone else’s shock, the mixed components come out looking totally different. They become a completely new item, medicine, or tool. One with brand new properties that changes after each use. It was something her and her friends had never seen before, and Jane loved it—so did Tony, Bruce, Peter, Shuri, and Strange (to some extent), who were like scientists in their own way as they, too, tended to experiments with things from time to time, magic or not.

Plus, it’s not like she can help it. She was a scientist—and a brilliant one who won the Nobel Prize many years ago at that!

And as such, Jane felt obligated to mix components with others and see what comes out of it. If the experiment turned out to be a successful one, then the next logical step would be the test the bad boy out and see what it does. If she likes the results of her fruits of her labor, she will keep the finished product and think about making duplicates in the future—which, nine times out of ten, she does.

However, if the whole thing turned out to be a failure in the end, then Jane saw no reason to continue working with the components. She would just dispose of them in the biohazard bin she keeps in her lab.

‘It’s a good thing I found these things. I was just beginning to get low on all of this stuff,’ the clone said as she proceeded to pick them all out of the cracks of the walls and ceilings with her telekinesis.

Two minutes later after gathering all sixteen items and arranging them in a giant ball, the young half spirit took out a black-light blue accented bag that had a star shaped zipper on it, and unzipped the thing. The pile fell neatly inside, and Jane zipped the bag up before making it vanish back into her pocket dimension.

“[Are you done with collecting items, Jane?]” she heard Gale ask, and looked down at him and the other two great spirits, who were all patiently waiting on her.

“Yeah!” she answered and let go of the stalagmite. “For now I am,” the young woman quickly added once she landed safely on the rocky ground.

Raiden pinched the bridge of his nose while Inferno and Gale sighed to themselves.

The clone gave them an apologetic smile before she picked up her lantern, turned on her heel, and took off with a light dash, then heard the three flying after her seconds later.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thousands upon thousands of miles away from Snow Lunar Island, and somewhere in London, two animals sat on the front lawn of a huge two-story, thirty-eight hundred square-foot home that had a large walkway area leading over to the garage on the other side, and leading down to the sidewalk where a mailbox stood in place.

The first animal was a large midnight blue and pale yellow dog with extra fur that was colored black on its back and fluffy tail, which was tipped magenta at the end, black hind paws, black tipped pointy ears, and magenta eyes while the second animal was a large royal purple and white bird with teal colored markings on the sides of its cheeks, the inner lining of its wings and the tips of its feathered tails, which were also tipped white, yellow talons, and teal eyes.

The two were currently playing a game of fetch with Darcy, who decided to come out here and play with Jane’s pets. No offense to her friend or anything, but she got tired of waiting in the lab on Jane to finish streaming the mini expedition her clone, Inferno, Gale, and Raiden were on.

As exciting as it was to see what the inside of that mysterious cave was like on one of the three twenty-four inch screen desktop computers of Jane’s, she got really bored thirty minutes into the video when nothing of interest was happening. And so, she told Jane that she’ll be outside with Luna and Raymond, who is called Ray for short, sometimes—but only by his owner and her closest friends.

And that happened an hour ago.

“Luna!” she shouted, grabbing the dog’s attention, “Fetch!” and tossed a red ball with a white strip filled with black diamonds on it up in the air.

Luna barked and ran after it; however, Raymond, who she thought of like a little brother to her, swooped down and quickly yet carefully caught the ball with his talons. She stared in disbelief at the bird, who gave her a bird-like cry of laughter, and flew over to the human woman.

Darcy sweat-dropped and caught the ball Raymond dropped in her right hand. “Sorry Luna! I guess Ray beat ya to it!” she said to dog and almost rolled her eyes at the display of Ray puffing his chest out in pride. “Wanna try again?”

Luna narrowed her magenta eyes and nodded in determination.

“Woof!”

Before she could get ready, however, her ears perked up at the sound of an engine from a vehicle pulling up in front of the house. When she turned around and saw a dark haired man and light haired woman get out of a red SUV, her eyes lit up at the sight of them and three other people climbing out from the backseat.

“Woof, woof!” she ran over to them with Raymond flying overhead not too far from her.

Darcy looked up to see the two getting petted by Kagome, Sota, Morgan, Pepper, and Tony. Then all of a sudden, she remembered what today was and what was supposed to take place at the Devil May Cry shop tonight.

‘Oh shit! I totally forgot about that!’ she panicked a bit on the inside, and before she could say anything, the Stark family walked up to her with Luna and Raymond in tow.

“Hello Darcy. How are you doing this evening?” Pepper, who was dressed up in a modest-looking devil costume, greeted her with a small smile.

“Splendid,” she answered part truthfully before looking down to see Morgan, who was in a cute little fairy costume. The little girl ran up to her and hugged her. “Oh you look adorable, Morgan!” she cooed.

“Thank you Auntie Darce!” the little six year old said with a big smile on her face.

The young woman grinned down and patted the young girl on her head with her left hand. Though she laughed when Morgan pulled back and gave her a pout before deciding to turn away in the other direction, as if she was saying “don’t look”, to fix her hair.

“So are you, Jane, and Lady ready for the Halloween party yet?” Tony, who was dressed up in a handsome pirate costume, asked, raising a brow at her casual state of her appearance.

Darcy sweat-dropped. “Eh, not exactly,” she said with a slow shrug until she brightened up and waved her hand in reassurance. “But you guys can wait inside the living room while Jane, Lady, and I go get ready.”

The Stark family looked at each other then back at the young woman.

“That’s fine with us,” Pepper replied.

Darcy nodded and led the family along with Jane’s pets up the walkway to the house.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jane stared at her desktop monitor, watching her clone and the three great spirits arrive inside of a brightly lit room filled with shiny gems that were embedded in the stalagmites hanging from the cavern ceiling. There was also some kind of runes, black in color, etched onto the walls, giant potholes that were either filled up with water or had a large glowing gem stuck inside of it on the ground, and a bunch of floating platforms gathered around a circle of sharp pillars that contained an unidentified rune inside.

“I sense a large amount of mana and some other kind of energy in this room,” she heard her clone speak.

“[Yes, I sense it too. And it seems to be coming from both the rune behind those pillars and further down the path I see up ahead.]”

‘In that case...’ Jane narrowed her eyes before pressing a button on the side of the wireless headphones she had on her head. “Alright, listen up you four!” she spoke into the built-in mic of her headphones. “Inferno, I want you and my clone to stay there and check out the rune. Run an analysis on it with the Magi Analyzer Spectro-Rod. And in the meantime, Raiden and Gale can go further into the cave and check the other sections out with the other six MASRs. Got it?”

“Yeah! / [Yes!]”

The young half spirit watched her clone pull out twelve intricate-looking silver and violet colored rods with shiny red gems on top of them, and distribute the items amongst her companions evenly.

With their equipment in hand, the group fanned out and got to work.

‘This will take a while.’

Jane pushed away from her computer desk and leaned back in her rolling chair. Seeing as the young woman had no further instructions to give to the group, she was in the mood for a little break. Maybe she can sneak in a small nap while she was at it too?

“Hey Jane!”

Well so much for that idea.

‘Aw screw it! I’ll just have another me take over.”

With a few simple gestures of her hand, Jane summoned another clone, making it appear by her side in a flash of red flames. Then she took off her headphones and turned to face the second clone. “Since there’s a high chance that Darcy is calling me to either come do something for her or drag me out of the house with her somewhere, stay here and watch the video and the other desktop monitor. Give more instructions to the group if you have to, okay?” she told her and handed them over to her.

Her second clone nodded and took the headphones, putting them on right away.

“Jane!”

A small sigh left the young astrophysicist’s mouth as she rolled around in her chair and faced her ex-intern and best friend, who was standing in the doorway of her lab and panting out of exhaustion.

“I thought you said you were going to be outside with Luna and Ray for a while? And why in the world do you look so out of breath?” she frowned at her.

“I was at first but then Tony and his family stopped by, so I told them they can wait in the living room while I come get you,” Darcy answered. “Oh and the reason why I’m so tired is because I ran up the stairs to put your pets in your room then ran back downstairs and came over here.”

Jane sat up. “Huh? Why didn’t they call—oh...” she leaped from her chair, her eyes wide in shock. “Oh god! They came to pick us up for the party at Dante’s place tonight, right?” the young woman grabbed her clone, who was looking so puzzled by what was going on, and sat her down in the chair. “Darcy! Why didn’t you remind me?” she moved away and rushed past her best friend.

Thankfully, Darcy moved out of the way in time to avoid getting ran over by her former boss who already bolted out the door and into the hallway.

“Hell if I know! Look, how the heck was I supposed to remind you if I forget about the whole thing myself?” she whined at the older woman and ran after her, but not before shutting the lab door closed.

“That’s surprising to hear coming from someone like you who loves parties,” Jane said over shoulder at Darcy, who caught up with her.

Darcy rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Let’s just hurry up and get dressed in our rooms then see if Lady’s up yet—”

“There’s no need for that,” came the muffled voice of Lady.

The two women looked up to see their other roommate standing at the end of the hallway, already decked out in an elegant kitsune costume she was wearing for the night. And to complete the look, she had a mask on her face that came with it too.

“You two are the only ones that are not ready. We have three hours until the party starts at seven. I suggest you hurry up on upstairs to your rooms and get dressed so that all eight of us can leave the house and get there on time,” she continued and turned around. “I’ll be waiting in the living room with Tony and his family in the meantime.”

Then she was gone.

“Let’s go before she comes back here and yells at us.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

The two quickly made it out of the hall, passing through the lobby area, and headed up the long stairs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two hours have gone by since Lady had last seen her two roommates on the first floor hallway, and she was starting to get a little anxious now. They were starting to run out of time. Sure the drive from here to the shop wasn’t far—just a thirty minute drive...if you don’t count running into any traffic along the way, but she rather be safe than sorry, and show up at the party on time. It was a routine of sorts she got into since she started working as a devil hunter all those years back and had to meet up with her clients at the destination on time, something that they —and even Vergil, who teamed up with her a few times in the past on missions, and he always made a point to meet up with her halfway so that they can head over to their client’s destination together— appreciated her greatly about.

‘Unbelievable...what are those two taking so long for?’ Lady thought to herself in irritation as she sat on the couch in between Kagome and Sota, who were watching and laughing in joy at their little sister standing in the middle of the living room, posing for the pictures that Pepper and Tony were taking on their phones.

Just when the devil huntress was thinking about getting up from the couch to check up on Jane and Darcy, she felt both of their presences walked into the room.

“Okay guys, we’re ready!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the two, a collective gasp leaving their mouths at the sight of them.

First up was Jane. The young woman wore a long dark robe with pale yellow accents and a star symbol on the hood over a midnight bluish-black skin tight sleeveless tunic that had a glowing white star (with a black diamond inside of it) marking on top of an upside glowing white crescent moon sitting on her chest, which had a few stars scattered about. She also wore a full lavender and glowing white accented waist cape-like cloth —that had a slit in the front, back, and both sides— with an intricate pale yellow metallic belt on top, some black tights that were tucked into her tall brown heeled boots, and a long light purple vest with a pale yellow accented high collar that also had a transparent vest in the form of a cloth attached to it on top, and it stopped just a few inches above her ankles.

Then finally, to top the whole look off, Jane wore some large curled dark horns on top of her long stylized white wig, pale yellow contacts over her eyes, and fake elven midnight blue ears over her real ones. She also painted her eyebrows white, painted both her face and whole body midnight blue, and painted some white stars on her bare arms, hands, cheeks, and the bridge of her nose.

“So, what do you think?”

Up next was Darcy. She wore modest-looking one-piece black tube top and purple tights outfit that had small violet bat symbols on her legs, brown arm warmers with white fluff over her bare arms, and some black high-heeled boots on her feet.

Then to top the whole look off, Darcy wore some black-purple bat wings on the sides of her long stylized green wig and her waist, and green contacts over her eyes.

“Beautiful / Pretty costumes!” Pepper and Morgan cooed in unison.

Sota, who was dressed up in a jester costume, and Kagome, who was dressed up in a witch costume, looked at the two with impressed eyes.

“So cool! You nailed that one star-touched dude from The Dragon Prince down pretty well, Auntie!” Sota said with a grin.

Kagome rolled her eyes at her brother, “His name was Aaravos I believe, Sota...” and turned to her other aunt with a smile. “Anyway, your Morrigan looks wonderful, Auntie Darcy.”

The two said nothing as they beamed under their praises and compliments.

“Well...” Lady began as she and the Starks stood from the couch. “I think it’s about time we head out now.”

They all nodded and headed out of the living room, making their way over to the front door. Jane opened it, letting everyone else out first before stepping outside herself and locked the door behind her. Then she ran to catch up with the others who were waiting for her by Tony’s rental SUV.

It only took a few minutes for everyone to pile in the vehicle and buckle themselves in before taking off down the road.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The made it to Devil May Cry, which had been heavily remodeled since anyone’s (except for Lady) last been there, with two minutes left to spare. And the group met up with Nero along with Jude, Elize, Teepo, and Alvin, who were all wearing costumes, inside.

Then after walking further into the shop, they came across the Sparda twins, Trish, Patty, Nico, Nero’s wife: Kyrie, Jude’s childhood friend: Leia, Kagome’s friends: Shippo, Miroku, and Sango, Clint and his family, Bruce, Bucky, and Peter hanging out in the huge living room.

And since everyone was here now—at least the ones who were invited and able to attend, music started blasting through the speakers that were set up by the wall, signifying that the party has begun. It was also at this time the kids and teenagers went upstairs on the second floor to have their own party in one of the back rooms while the adults stayed downstairs and had their own.

Throughout the whole night, Jane and all the other adults played many games:

First, they bobbed for apples. And Dante was the only one out of everyone else that was able to snag the most apples from the bucket with Nero coming in second place, Clint in third, Tony and Jane tying in fourth, and everyone else following up after.

Second, they had a drinking contest. And surprisingly enough, Jane and Lady —who weren’t really casual drinkers compared to some of their friends— along with Bucky drank those who participated (Nico, Nero, Alvin, Clint, Tony, Miroku, Sango, Leia, and Trish) under the table.

Third, they all participated in a dance off competition that was held in one of the rooms next over after drinking some water and eating some snacks, which were laced with magic, that sobered them up. Too bad the whole dance thing ended up being awkward for some since they weren’t dancers; however, Dante, Darcy, and Sota slayed the competition with their smooth moves. So in the end, they ended up out dancing them and the ones who already knew how to dance.

And finally, they held a quick costume competition to see who had the best one of them all. It was no surprise that Jane ended being first place winner with Lady coming in second place and Darcy coming in third place.

The party started winding down near ten o’ clock, and by the time eleven o’ clock rolled around, everyone started cleaning up their mess. Due to their combined efforts, the whole group finished putting everything back where they belonged twenty minutes. Then everyone said their goodbyes to each other, and the Sparda twins along with Trish escorted their friends out the door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Hey Jane...”

The young woman stopped in her tracks, letting Darcy and Lady walk past her towards their home, and turned around to see Tony rolling the passenger window down.

“Yes?” she asked, walking up to the vehicle. Then she blinked in shock when the man picked up a metallic case and held it out to her out the window. “What’s this?” the young half-spirit took the case and looked at it curiously. “What’s in here—” Jane trailed off with wide eyes when she felt the familiar presence of a certain infinity stone inside.

“Think of it as a “trick-or-treat” from me. I want you to look after the thing from now on—at least for a little while until we find a better place to stash the stone...” at Jane's confused look, Tony went ahead and told the woman point blank, “Reindeer Games’ been looking for it. Well, only after he left that morning before you and the others did and came back two weeks later.”

“I see...” Jane mumbled, taking a look around the area to make sure there weren’t any lurkers nearby. When she sensed none, she vanished the case away and asked, “Has he been causing you guys any trouble or bothering you?” in a serious voice.

Pepper frowned from her spot in the driver’s seat. “Other than the few unannounced visits he’s made here and there at our home, no. He’s been strangely compliant with us after Tony and I discovered him playing with Morgan out in our front yard, disguised as a black cat with green eyes no less, one day. Then, we sat him down before he could make his escape and had a nice, long chat with him after that,” she explained.

“That is strange,” Jane looked down with a muse.

“We haven’t heard anything “disastrous” on the news this past month-and-a half, so we assume the guy isn’t causing any trouble,” Tony added. “Then again, as long as Rock of Ages isn’t trying to cause chaos anywhere, take over a city, or kill anyone, Pep and I don’t care what he does in his free time. He can stay here on Earth without any complaints from us. And we won’t take any action against him either as long as he doesn't do any of those three things I listed there.”

Jane nodded. “Do the other Avengers know? And did they agree with this decision?”

Tony gave her a sly smile. “They do now. I told them during our little “get together” kind of meeting we held at the Tower last week, but that was only after the guy appeared and played a little harmless prank on us before disappearing. The gang weren’t too happy about it in the beginning, which I can understand. But in the end, they reluctantly agreed with my wife and I’s decision,” he explained. “I have no idea what Reindeer Games wants with the Tesseract—which the team also knows about too by the way. But anyhow, that’s not the point! From what Nero, Lady, and Kagome told me, he seems to gets along with you pretty well...” there was something in his tone of voice that made Jane want to glare at him.

But before she could do so, Tony continued on—and in a normal voice this time. “So, if you happen to run into him in the future, can you try to get an idea of what his motives for the stone are?”

Jane looked up. “I was already thinking about doing that actually,” she replied, repressing a sigh back.

“Oh good!” he sighed in relief. Then he cheered up and gave her a grin. “Well, have a good night Jane!”

“You too! And thanks for dropping me and the girls off, Pepper!” she waved at them both with a smile on her face. “Have a safe trip back to the hotel!”

The two waved back before the window rolled up and the SUV took off.

Three minutes passed by with nothing but serene silence. And once she no longer saw her friend’s rental vehicle in the distance, Jane turned around and started walking towards her home, the one she shared with Lady and Darcy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The clone slowly looked up at the sound of door opening up behind her, and she turned around to see Jane, who was still in her Aaravos costume, standing in the doorway of the lab.

“Did you capture anything good?” she asked, watching over to her.

Without saying anything, the second clone nodded and stood up from the chair, removing the headphones from her head as she did so with a sleepy look on her face.

Jane took the headphones from her then walked right past the clone and stopped in front of the desk. She raised a brow and leaned down to take a closer look at her screen monitor. Even though there was no video showing now, she could see that it had been downloaded and saved right to her desktop along with a new file that she never seen before right next to it. “Hmm...” her eyes narrowed at the title typed on it. “Data Findings from The Cave on Snow Lunar Island,” she quietly read out loud.

‘This will be interesting to look through...’

The young woman placed her headphones down before straightening herself back up. And she stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, slowly going over what she read in her head. ‘But I’ll do that another day. Too damn tired at the moment to do really anything productive,’ she said to herself while covering up a yawn. ‘Now then...’ she uncrossed her arms and turned her attention back on the silent clone. “Since I felt my first clone dismiss herself about an hour ago, I’m gonna assume that Inferno and the other two went home already. Am I right?” at her nod, Jane continued. “Alright then, nice work. I don’t need you anymore for the night,” she said to the clone before sending her off as well.

Once she vanished, Jane shut her computer down and turned it off. “Time to go shower now then head to bed,” she mumbled, sleepily, and walked away.

However, in the midst of her wanting to hurry up and leave the room, there were a few strands of black fur and faint claw marks left behind on the floor, sitting oh-so innocently next to the computer desk that she completely missed earlier.

CLICK!

The door shut closed.

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