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 Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2025 8:40 pm
Most relevantly follows The Unknown is Calling
“Don’t run,” Jet requested as he teleported to close the distance between the two. He was powered as just a General that night, and he held up his hands to show he was unarmed and kept to a conversational distance.
“You know as well as I do what we’re up against. We don’t have time to waste fighting each other. I need to know… will the White Moon help protect the Earth, or will we have to do it by ourselves?”
There were smudges under his eyes. He hadn’t slept much since the night before. He’d already been up all day, working on reports, and trying to hunt down information.
He hated this with every fiber of his being. Working with the White Moon was an insult. And yet, to save the Earth, Jet sucked in a steadying breath and breathed out slowly.
“Please.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2025 9:29 pm
Clearly, something in the universe was on Kerberos's side, for Jet to appear so suddenly out of nowhere when Kerberos wanted to find him. He'd hoped to have more of a plan in place than this, but...well, it was at least happening.
"I remember how teleportation works," he said, a little deadpan. But Jet was right. There was no point in wasting time, either on a chase or on a fight. "And I was hoping to find you, anyway."
No point in pretending otherwise. He'd just have to report after, which was definitely not going to worry anyone. And as gratifying as it was to hear a General-King of the Negaverse ever so nicely say please, Kerberos didn't intend to drag this out.
"Of course we'll help you. We all live here. As much as I love my world--as proud as I am of how well it's grown--my home is here. And I've got some information to share--it's not great, but it's more than nothing."
He extended a hand, open, unarmed.
"So. Truce, for now?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 12:15 pm
Truce.
The word felt like poison on his tongue. He didn’t want to agree. He wanted to remove Kerberos’ head and present it and his starseed to the Queen.
Jet reached out to take the traitor Senshi's hand, but held onto it tighter than necessary. Maybe it was to be a show of strength. Or maybe it was to hide the slight tremble in his hand.
He frowned at the other man, but there was a hint of sadness in his eyes. A small glimpse of desperation. An inkling of hope.
“What do you know?” he asked as he took his hand back. As a gesture of good faith, he shared first.
“Did you locate any strange objects? Particularly these… metal spike things. In the murals it looked like they were being used to conduct the lightning. We need six, but…”
The numbers didn’t add up. They were missing one at best. Five at most.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 1:15 pm
Well. That was at least a start. An awkward handshake that neither of them was entirely happy about, but still something.
"We did find one of those spikes, yes. Murikabushi has it; it responded to him, not me. I'm assuming you've got one, too, then?" But they were probably one short, if they needed six. That was....not reassuring.
"We went to the moon, to that Celestial Theatre place I mentioned. And we learned some things. It's one of those 'no name, only ominous titles' entities. The Moon Kingdom managed to trap it in the past, more than once--so that's probably the origin of the prison we got pulled to. And it's going to be here in three to six weeks."
Which was a hell of a bombshell to drop. So, so little time. But that just emphasized the urgency of the situation.
"But it's been stopped before. Which means we can stop it again."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 1:47 pm
“Three to six weeks?” Jet tried not to sputter in horrified disbelief, his face actually blanching just a bit. How the hell were they supposed to figure things out so soon? How could Kerberos seem so completely casual about it?
Or maybe they really were planning on abandoning Earth, despite what Kerberos said about how their home was here.
Here, until it was no longer convenient.
“How did they trap it? If they stopped it before, how are we going to stop it again? We only have so much energy on reserve, and you people refuse to even try collecting energy!” he snapped, clearly agitated by the prospect of the Negaverse, once again, doing the heavy lifting to protect the Earth while the White Moon sat back and lorded over how they were better.
“What are you all even doing??”
His heart was racing. He didn’t want to show weakness to an enemy. He didn’t want Kerberos to see how upset he was about this. But this was their home and countless lives.
“Do you even know where that prison we were in was located? Is it close? Or is it where the no name monster escaped from?”
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 2:08 pm
"I'm hoping we're looking at the higher end, or maybe that the moon console was wrong, the thing is a thousand years old and faulty. But yeah, that's what we're looking at." Honestly, if Kerberos let himself freak out as much as he wanted to, he was pretty sure he'd end up curled up in a ball and catatonic, or he'd start thinking of even stupider solutions than what was on the table.
So he couldn't exactly begrudge Jet being visibly upset, when he was pretty sure he was emotionally being held together by determination and nothing else.
"Details are thin," he said. "The Moon Kingdom loved their secrets. But we're going to try breaking into some of the locked-off areas of the palace, come the full moon. If there's anything good to be found, it'll be there. The Code--the thing that empowers Knights--has offered to help us, too."
He exhaled between his teeth.
"I know it's not much. I know there's only so much we can offer. We can't drain energy, not on our own, but I'll give everything I have, if that's what it takes." If his world was going to give him so much, he might as well put it into saving the ******** world.
"But it seems like this thing was mysterious even a thousand years ago. The Code says no one knew where it came from, just that it showed up out of dark space and started eating. And I have no idea where any of those prisons were--just that they existed. But I'm going to be honest with you--I'd rather not lock it up again and kick the can down the road." There was a fierce determination in Kerberos's eyes and his voice. "I want to figure out how to kill it for good. And I know we can't do that alone."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 5:41 pm
He hadn’t been sure what to expect from Kerberos, but it certainly wasn’t all that. If his heart wasn’t racing, he might have been able to piece together things without having to ask some of the many questions that swirled in his head.
Jet paused his thoughts at the sound of resolve in Kerberos’ voice.
“No, you can’t do that alone,” Jet agreed, and then drew in a steadying breath.
“We need to figure out how to gather up those metal spikes, I think it’s the only way we can trap it. We’ll have to figure out how to get rid of it for good once it’s locked down. But I need more to go off of than… ‘no name, only ominous titles.’ What titles? The Negaverse has records that might be useful, but I need to know what we’re looking for. The Moon has a thousand year old computer? Seriously?” he made a face, not sure if he believed Kerberos, but it seemed too weird to make up.
“So this… Code said no one knows where it’s from… it empowers Knights but doesn’t know anything useful? Huh,” he frowned skeptically. “I guess that explains a lot. Well, is there any way we can talk to it? Maybe we can ask it questions you don’t know to ask.”
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 6:26 pm
Kerberos nodded. Good, it seemed like they were very much getting on the same page.
"Right. I assume you've got three of them, broadly speaking. We have the other two. We'll need to find a time and place to bring them together, and hope that everyone cooperates. And figure out how to either get or make due without a sixth." Kerberos couldn't help but remember Encke's grumblings, in that room they were all brought to; how he'd been fine with dying up there if it took the Negaverse with them. The thought of having to work around that was exhausting, to say the least. Hopefully his wingy friend was more cooperative.
"The moon console--yeah, thousand year old space computer, but it's about as useful as an Apple 1 that's been in a garage for decades--gave it a number of names. The Calamitous Hollow. Storm of the Endless Sky. Herald of the Dark Star. The Stormborn Cataclysm. If you all have any records of it, or even suspicious non-records--places where something's clearly been left out or hidden, you know?--we'll need everything we can find."
He shrugged his shoulders, a little. "I don't deal with the Code much, but I don't get the impression it's fond of Chaos. It might not talk to you. Sorry." He did sound a little sheepish about it, at least. "Honestly, the most annoying thing is that the Moon Kingdom was apparently so up itself with secrets that they didn't leave behind much of anything to work with. Seems like they assumed they'd always be around for people to weepily call on for assistance. Short-sighted, arrogant bullshit."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 7:04 pm
Jet wasn’t sure if he’d stopped breathing for a moment, or if the weight of all these mysterious titles were just that forebodingly heavy. How were they supposed to go up against the Herald of the Dark Star?
Another breath -- slowly let out.
He was trying not to let everything feel as hopeless as it really was. How were they supposed to get extra spikes? How were they supposed to all cooperate? He was willing to do whatever it took to save the Earth, but others…?
Would they let the Earth parish to spite their enemy?
“The Moon Kingdom really didn’t seem to be a reliable friend, unless they could benefit from it,” he mumbled thoughtfully, but then looked up as though he remembered Kerberos was standing there.
“We need as much energy as possible,” he said after a moment, lifting his hand to hold out to Kerberos, palm down. “If you have any to spare, place your hand on mine. I won’t hold you, and will stop when you decide it’s enough,” Jet offered. He didn’t need to be touching the Senshi, but he was still wanting to prove that he was serious. He hoped any little bit helped.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 7:16 pm
Kerberos gave Jet his moment to process, because he knew he was dropping a lot on him. They didn't have much time, but they had a moment.
"I'm getting that impression, yeah," he sighed, having just picked up what Jet mumbled. Whatever the Moon Kingdom had done, it almost seemed as if there was a better ally standing in front of him. And wasn't that a trip.
Kerberos wasn't a fool. He was well aware that Jet could take his energy without so much as a by-your-leave. So he took the gesture for what it was, and put his hand on top of Jet's.
"Take what you can. I've got more than enough."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 7:35 pm
He monitored Kerberos’ energy as he drained it. The process wasn’t so fast that it would leave the Senshi dizzy and unable to stand, but it wasn’t so slow that he started worrying about potential ulterior motives.
For now, all Jet wanted to do was continue his research. The faster they could get answers, the better.
With a decent sized orb of energy drawn -- similar to the size that had been pressed into the floor’s dark circle beside Kerberos -- Jet took a step back and dismissed the energy into subspace.
Another small gesture to show he meant what he said about wanting to save the Earth, he pulled out a wrapped chocolate bar from his subspace and tossed it to Kerberos.
“Convince the others to help. I’ll do what I can to find more answers,” he promised.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 8:45 pm
Well. Kerberos had never expected to catch a chocolate bar tossed to him from a General-King after willingly donating his energy. But then, this war kept deciding to surprise him.
And honestly, he preferred this over life and death battles. At least they all knew where their priorities were.
"I'll do the same," he said. "And--you know, I can't say it would have made me stay? But I wish there had been someone like you in power, when I was in the Negaverse. Might have changed some things."
How much, he couldn't say. But at least there'd have been someone he knew gave a s**t.
"Good luck, Jet."
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