Silence is a Virtue

[Witchblade]

Alerar.

Yep, Alerar.

It was one of the only regions on Althanas that Witch tended to shy away from. She didn’t know why and really she’d never bothered questioning it because there wasn’t much interesting in the place anyway. It was just a bunch of Drow and Dwarves and in her opinion the Dwarves stunk something fierce to her sensitive nose. She preferred to keep as far away from them as physically possible and well, Corone was pretty far away. At least from there, their horrid smell would not come for her. Though she disliked the place she now found herself wandering through some random area of it. Alerar wasn’t a place of forests; instead it was fields and valleys with cute little happy, bright flowers that danced with every breeze. It made her long for the deep, tangled boughs of Concordia. The paths she knew all too well and the smells and sights that were a comfort to her even if they were solitude. Of course, her solitude was not so bad with Daegun by her side.

Shame most of the time he just slept.

That’s what he was even doing at the current moment too, sleeping. She could hear the odd sounds he made in the throes of his dreams coming from the depths of her rucksack. His tail was pressed uncomfortably into her back as well and every time she’d tried to nudge him to move into another position with her elbow it hadn’t worked. So she’d given up hours ago and contented herself to just ignore the constantly pressure digging into her spine. Her cloak was helping to dull it a bit anyway.

Every now and then she’d pass by a small farming community that had ripped up the land and selfishly plant what they needed to survive. She was quite sure that from the air it would look like patches of earth in almost perfect rectangles and squares instead of the seemingly random patterns that nature itself created. She preferred them to these little villages and especially the larger cities like Ettermire, which was why she steered clear of them and kept to the fields. She needed no directions and she certainly did not want to talk to any of them let lone get near them. They weren’t human, they were Drow, though she was pretty sure she’d spotted a few humans here and there, but that didn’t mean she wanted to walk right up to them and be friendly.

It was a good thing she could avoid all of these places on her way to Kachuk. It would make the journey easier and less complicated, not to mention much quicker. Whenever she went into town she always found herself getting dragged into one thing or another and the next thing she knew she was knee deep in danger fighting for her life, not that she really minded that. She actually enjoyed being knee deep in danger and she definitely enjoyed killing things but now was not the time for it. She was just here to pick up something real quick and then be on her way. Nothing needed to happen in between and nothing was going to happen in between. She may actually have to talk to a few Dwarves to find the exact location of the item but besides that it should go over rather smoothly.

Of course it would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to travel all this way just to get the item.

From out of nowhere, even on this clear and bright sunny day, a ninja dropped down in front of Witch and silently handed her a piece of rolled up parchment before jumping back up into the air and once again disappearing.

Why can’t you just communicate like normal people?

Unrolling the parchment, Witch began to read the words written:

“Stop complaining or I’ll throw a group of bandits at you that you’ll have to defeat before you can even think of getting that sword.

Sincerely Megan

P.S. Don’t complain about me communicating like a normal person when you’re the one whose mouth is sown shut.”

The halfling growled as she crumpled up the parchment and threw it into the tall grass beside her, My mouth is only sown shut because you made it happen to me!

Not expecting another answer from her she was actually surprise when another ninja dropped down in front of her and handed her yet another piece of parchment. She examined him for a moment wondering if it was in fact the same ninja that had appeared before in front of her but she could see no characteristics other than his eyes, they were a brown so dark they almost looked black.

Grabbing the parchment from him, the murderer didn’t even bother watching him go as she quickly opened it, not caring that she was bending and creasing the delicate piece of paper; she was just going to throw it out anyway:

“Yes, I did have your mouth sown shut and I can do much worse so stop your bitching and start walking.

Sincerely, your benevolent creator, Megan.”

Crushing the parchment in her hands, the halfling snarled as the paper burst into flames and turned into nothing more than ash. She really, really hated her creator. That bitch had some serious issues she needed to have dealt with; either that or she was some kind of masochist. Who has a person’s mouth sown shut? Honestly, that’s one the cruellest things you could do and on top of that the string used to do it is enchanted so it’s not even like she could cut them, no she had to break the magic seal on them first which she had no idea how to do! One of these days she was going to get her revenge, somehow, some way. Until then, she had to get that stupid sword.

[Nova]

Nova had come to Alerar, but she had no other reason other than Aesop wanted her to go there. And since Aesop was the only thing to respect her, Nova would listen to the machine.

Wow this place was pretty, not like she heard and read about Alerar. Nova had read all kinds of things about how the cities had so much smog that only the drow could stand it for long and it made the stark yet clean walls of the laboratories that the cat girl called home rather clean and safe.

But the fields were not the City and the sky was mostly a hazy blue turning brown in one direction that lay Ettermire. And the fields were rather green with strange spiny yet beautiful flowering thistle plants, which made Nova yelp with pain as she touched it. Can’t eat that, the feline lamented. But protein’s better anyways, yet there wasn’t anything to hunt.

Well thankfully the thought of no hunting would be proved false. The Cyborg perked her kitty ears and twitched her tail as a warble came forth. There was prey nearby and the hungry cat girl would eat, and well by the sound of the size of the beast.

Cresting the hill, Nova stayed low and saw the large flightless red bird. Its body was different than most birds being a quadruped and had lots of meat. There were others but Nova only needed one, and the others would scatter if she could take down one. The feline hybrid moved closer and got her boomerang ready. One good throw sent the boomerang soaring and pounding into the bird’s head and knocking the beast cold before returning to its owner thanks to the advanced technology packed into the weapon.

Nova took one step and almost got into a run when her path was interrupted with a shoot and the dirt flew up a meter away. The cat girl’s cat side took over and she turned around and ran away, with an angry drow in pursuit.

“Come back here, you cat poacher! So I can skin you for harming my flock.” The dark elf yelled while waving the shotgun and occasionally shooting a poorly aimed shot. Nova weaved around the grass and pretty thistle in hopes of losing the angry farmer without getting shot.

“I didn’t know they were yours! I’m Sorry!” Nova yelled but didn’t stop running, knowing that he might not accept her apology. But someone else came into view. A Woman was there and that just might be what Nova needed to get away.

The cybernetic girl fled behind the woman and kept the stranger between her and the gunman. A good shot would still be able to kill Nova despite being a Cyborg and if she didn’t get away then there would be too many chances for Nova to win them all.

[Witchblade]

Boom!

Every muscle in Witchblade’s body tensed as the sound echoed through her sensitive ears, ringing inside her head and lingering long after its effects had left the surroundings. Her mind raced and her eyes tore through the area, looking for the source of the sound or any kind of danger to her but she saw none. All she saw was more fields for the farmers to harvest from and the occasional animal or two, now frightened by the loud sound echoing in the air. Nothing more.

Boom!

Realizing it was coming for the Northwest of her, Witch turned in that direction as the muffled sound of voices carried through too much wind reached her ears. She couldn’t tell what was being said but soon enough she didn’t exactly need to. She watched as the figure of what appeared to be a cat girl raced away from what appeared to be a very pissed off farmer who just happened to be carrying a shotgun and aiming rather poorly at the creature he was chasing. It was a humorous sight to be sure but as the farmer continued yet another shot at the cat girl, missing her entirely, the halfling was growing tired of the ringing in her ears. Some people had no kind of consideration for the others that may be around.

The chase didn’t last much longer. The next thing Witch knew the small feline had taken it upon herself to use Witch as a shield against the farmer, who paused for a moment as he realized there was now a second person he needed to deal with and this one did not appear to be as weak and frightened as the first.

“She killed one of my flock, step aside!”

The dark elf searched around Witch as if looking for an opening to get at the cat girl but the cloak covering the halfling’s body kept the girl behind her well hidden, not that she really cared if he killed her or not. The only thing she cared about was the fact that she had a pissed off farmer in front of her with a gun and he certainly was not scared of firing the thing. She, on the other hand, had never been shot before and was not looking forward to seeing the type of damage it could do to her body.

When she didn’t move aside, the farmer began raising the barrel of the gun towards her, “I sa—”

Whatever words he was going say, whatever thoughts had been crossing through his mind ended in a mere second, for that was all it took. Her body had lunged towards the farmer, her speed propelling her to his form in a blur of motion as her fingernails hardened and her claws extended. Using her momentum she pounced on him, taking him down to the ground as her natural weapons tore into the flesh of his throat. She kept away from the main arteries, not wishing to coat herself with his blood, instead she went for the centre area of his neck and ripped into his airway. Blood pooled in his oesophagus and flowed downward, filling his lungs as he tried to scream only to realize he had no vocal cords left scream with.

The grotesque sound of the man gurgling and drowning on his own life’s essence filled the silence that had ensued and that wonderful metallic smell filled the air and began coating the land around. Indeed, the grass around the man neck and head was now being stained a deep red as his blood continued to poor from the wound and the murderer watched as the life left his eyes, which never left her face. They stared at her in accusation as if she would feel remorse for what she had done to him, as if she would care for the loss of one life when Althanas was already filled with too many useless lives already.

This was, her first blood spilled on Alerar soil.

Her fingernails returned to their normal strength and receded back. Wiping the blood from the man onto his clothes, Witch slowly stood up and looked behind her to the cat girl, wondering what exactly she should do with the creature. She was quite small and had an odd hair and fur colour at that, blue, though Witch had seen much stronger. Felines were not exactly a race she enjoyed the company of, especially after her battle with that one cat boy in The Citadel. She still remembered the humiliation of losing to him and having her throat ripped out and then him feasting on her own flesh. She hoped he’d received some kind of taint from her vampiric blood, either that or he’d picked another fight with something much stronger than him and was now being beaten into a bloody pulp. It was a nice thought and she could only hope.

Pushing the long strands of her hair away from her face, the halfling turned from the feline and silently began heading towards Kachuk once more. She had no need of a cat girl, especially one that couldn’t even save herself from the angry ramblings of a farmer.

[Nova]

Nova watched with more curiosity than fear when she saw the strange woman fight with claws similar but definitely not the same as her own claws. But it was one thing that the dark woman had that the cat girl had and it was more a similarity than she really had to another since the people around were normally male humans or one computer.

It was odd that the woman didn’t say anything but just started to walk away without a word. There was a strange thing with her mouth and maybe it left her mute. Nova thought that she would at least want a thank you. That’s it, the cat girl thought; she forgot to say thank you.

The cyber kitty scampered in front of the odd lady and smiled. “Thank you miss.” Nova swished her tail kept her ears perked to hear any word that would come as a reply. “That loud thingy, I think it’s a gun sorta scared me and I thought it be better to run than risk an attack.”

What kind of person could this stranger be? Nova had nothing better to do and the mystery would be helpful, not to mention the cat girl was very lost and the one other person she met wanted to kill her and that wasn’t very helpful.

“Hey mind if I come along? I think I might be helpful.” Nova asked while scolding herself on the inside. She knew the other lady was a better fighter from how quickly she killed the angry farmer. Though maybe she might need help with some ancient technology if they found any, though it was nil chance unless the woman was headed there then it would be worthwhile for Nova.

“Oh yeah, I’m Nova.” The neko introduced her self with a giggle. “What’s your name and if you can’t speak it then can I call you sister?”

[Witchblade]

She was fine when the cat girl thanked her, she could live with that. After all she had just saved the creature’s life, albeit inadvertently. If it wasn’t for the fact that the shotgun had been pointed at her she would have gladly watched from a distance as that farmer pumped the little kitty full of as much lead as possible. The halfling could even deal with the little ramble that flew out of her mouth as she spoke of being scared, a thing that Witch could say she had never felt before in her lifetime. Fear was for the weak, the only thing to fear in life was fear itself and she had luckily never experienced such a thing. Once the cat girl got on the topic of coming along with her Witch paused in her walk and turned to the thing as it continued to ramble on about being helpful, that it’s name was Nova and that if Witch couldn’t talk she wanted to call her sister.

S-sister!?

Now that she couldn’t exactly live with.

She placed a hand on her forehead and shook her head before looking up at the clear sky above her, You hate me…don’t you?

How did she find herself in these positions and how could that cat girl in her right mind ask if she could call Witch her sister!? She’d just thoughtlessly slaughtered a man before her and the girl didn’t even seem too bothered by it, actually she didn’t even care that much at all. Pausing for a moment, Witch eyed the creature with the twitching tail once again wondering if perhaps it was a heartless little thing trapped in a rather cute body that unfortunately couldn’t fight very well. It was an interesting thought. Taking her along did not seem like the best course of action though, she looked like she’d get in the way and quite possibly annoy Witch to the point where she just silenced the creature for good. There was always that option though. She could take her with her and see just what if anything swam through that tiny brain of hers and when she grew bored of it she could discard it like humans so often did with their pets.

Speaking of pets, hers decided to rear it’s little head at this point in time, mostly likely awakened by the sudden and drastic actions the halfling had taken, not to mention the smell of something new. The small, white and scaly head of the baby dragon emerged from the flap of her rucksack and sniffed the air as two clawed paws quickly followed after it. They latched onto the straps of the rucksack and hoisted itself up from the depths of it’s home and onto Witch’s shoulder. Large black eyes stared at the cat girl before it as the dragon cocked its head to one side, examining the creature as it examined everything new. The murderer of course knew what was coming and didn’t bother trying to stop the dragon as it leapt down from her shoulder to the grass below, making a soft thump sound as it landed. Tentatively, it moved towards the cat girl as if unsure it could trust the creature before him. Once his eyes landed upon the moving form of Nova’s tail the worry of the dragon was left to dust as a playful gleam came into his eyes and he quickly ran around to the back of the girl, attempting to catch the tail as it waved before him.

Witch just sighed and wondered how she got into such predicaments.

“I have a distinct feeling were I to tell you no, you’d just follow me anyway.” The halfling communicated with her telepathically, wondering why her creator insisted on torturing her every chance she got, "No, you may not call me sister, I am not your sister nor do I ever wish to be. My name is Witchblade…”

For the love of all things evil, someone end my misery right now…

She began walking forward once again, knowing the girl would follow behind her and Daegun would follow the moving object that was her tail.

“I travel to Kachuk to retrieve an item, you best be able to keep up…”

[Nova]

Nova couldn’t really tell what in the world ‘sister’ was thinking. The strange woman had great control over her expressions and didn’t reveal much. But still she seemed nice enough to save the cat girl and didn’t attack.

But that wasn’t much of interest as a small dragon, or strange winged lizard to Nova. The kitty girl went down on all fours and brought her face close to the dragon. “Wow. There’s nothing in the books about a lizard with wings.” Nova giggled and the dragon backed off a little.

But something took the cyber kitty’s attention away from the little dragon, a voice in her head. It didn’t feel like the translator in Nova’s head, that device would make the spoken words sound like her native tongue and the only way to notice was the off synch of the lips. This was different and foreign and complained about being called sister while preferring the name Witchblade.

“Oh sorry about that sister.” Nova replied not sure what to say, the words sounded like a person that wanted company but didn’t want it because they wanted to sound tough, well as far as Nova was concerned and the cat girl guessed that she wanted to be called sister as well even though she said she didn’t want to be.

Another interruption took Nova’s attention, this time lights in the clouds. “Hey sister, look. I think there’s something up there.” Nova pointed into a group of clouds, with a streaking light, not lightning but something unnatural. “I bet it might be something cool! OWWWWWW!”

Nova screamed while the little dragon bit her tail. “Why’d you do that?” She asked the reptile. The feline would have vengeance though, and do something she wanted to do since she read about lizards in the lab archives. Crouching low on one of the black rocks that Alerar was abundant of, Nova then pounced on the lizards tail and bit in for a moment before letting go. “I thought their tails are supposed to come off when someone catches them.” Nova pouted slightly and stood up. “Um sorry about that mr. Lizard. Just teaches you to bite other people’s tails.”

[Witchblade]

The halfling growled in annoyance. The cat girl was still calling her sister. It was unbelievable! Did this girl have no fear of her what-so-ever!? Did she not realize that with one quick motion she could end her pathetic and scrawny little existence? This was certainly going to be a very, very long journey if this thing followed her the entire time. Maybe if she was lucky they’d get attacked by a group of monsters—or bandits, bandits were good too—and they slaughtered the cat before Witch’s very eyes as she in turn slaughtered each and every one of them. Ahh, yes, a bloodbath sounded particularly entertaining at this moment in time. It would certainly relieve a lot of built up stress and perhaps get an annoyance off her hands.

Drawn from her thoughts by the cry that rent the air, Witch glanced down and found that Daegun had latched himself onto the moving tail of the cat girl, who didn’t seem at all pleased by the circumstance. In fact, she even crouched down and bit Daegun back and then complained that his tail didn’t detach, as if it was supposed.

“Nova, don’t bite Daegun and Daegun, don’t bit Nova…she’s probably diseased. Who knows what you’ll catch from her…”

Daegun looked from Witch to the cat girl and then slowly backed away towards his master. Smirking, the halfling knelt down and allowed the baby dragon to climb onto her shoulder, his favourite place to sit and watch the world go by around him. Turning back to the sky, Witch watched as a strange metal object began to fly through the clouds at speeds she could never hope to reach herself. The light of the sun caught the surface of the thing and made it shimmer, reflecting light in multiple directions. In all her years of travelling she had never seen anything like it, even with all the technology in Alerar it seemed so foreign to her. Curiosity kept her in her place as the thing gradually grew closer to them and eventually the murderer could make out details. It essence it was a large disk type thing that had lights all along the side. They were hard to see since it was still daytime but they were there. Perhaps they were spheres of energy, or lanterns, she couldn’t really tell.

“What the heck is that thing…?”

It was in essence a rhetorical question. She did not expect any kind of answer back from her furry companion and highly doubted she knew what it was either. Eventually, the spinning disk came to float right above Witchblade and Nova. That was when Witch got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and that was when she watched the bottom compartment of the thing open up. The next thing she knew a bright blue light enveloped her and gravity sudden became extremely distorted. Her insides felt like they were going to be ripped out and turned into her outsides and the ground she was standing on shot away from her feet as if it were falling only it took her moment to realize she was ascending.

Then darkness. It lasted for only a moment or two and light began to flood the area, blinding her. It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the extreme light before she could start making out certain items and even then she didn’t know what half of them were. Wherever she was now it was cold, not just in temperature but the way it was made. Everything was painted white and appeared to be crafted of metal, the walls, the tables, with thingies with the blinking things. Tables with little flashing lights on them and small colourful stones that probably had some kind of purpose. What it was she didn’t know. There didn’t appear to be any way out of the room either, all she saw were walls, no doors and no people. The entire room just felt cold and was void of any kind of life, save the three of them.

Walking over to the wall, Witch tried to feel around for any kind of door that would get her out of this place but she couldn’t seem to find one. Growling in frustration, she crossed her arms under her chest and leaned against the wall, the cold bite of metal seeping through her cloak. Daegun leapt down from her shoulder and took it upon himself to explore the area more, sniffing around at various tables and even this large tower thing that had more of those blinking lights all over it. But there was no smell in here, it was sterile. The only thing she could smell was the cat and her own dragon.

“How in Hell are we supposed to get out of here…”

Not to mention just what exactly was here and where were the people. This thing couldn’t be flying on it’s own, there had to be someone operating it. And though she’d heard of the airships that some nations were building she had yet to see any of them. Could this in fact be one? And if so, what was that beam of light and how did they get inside? More importantly, how did they leave, and why did they bring them up here in the first place?

[Nova]

Nova screamed as the beam enveloped her feeling of teleportation was not the pleasant sorta feeling that some mages say it is, instead it’s like being ripped apart by the molecules and being put together again somewhere else. When the cat girl Cyborg rematerialized in the sterile room, she was panting, her nanomachines were scurrying through her blood stream to make sure nothing was out of place and it made her dizzy for a moment while Witchblade and her pet were sniffing about.

Though after Nova’s body started to feel better, the cat girl smiled widely at the room. “Hey it’s a Lab!” She cheered at see all the tables and blinking lights. It was like the mechanics lab at home, yet different. The machines in her home lab were angular and sharp while these were smooth and avoided angels. Maybe she was wrong but Nova was sure that there would be some kind of fun treasure lying around or hidden.

“Meow, there should be something fun around here. But what are they testing?” Nova asked as she stared into a lens, she was sure it was a lens and not a dial or screen like the rest, some one or something would get a really good look at her eye.

“Hey sis? What do you think this Lab’s testing?” It was a stupid question since realizing that this lab was for their testing was just a matter of putting two and two together, but Nova wasn’t great at math and hated thinking hard. But she did get the answer and a consolation prize by being the first test subject. Four holes opened around the cyber kitty and a something like a mechanical spider came out of each one, all latching on to Nova’s arms and legs.

“Hey stop! Let me go!” Nova struggled as she was placed on the table and held there.

“Please don’t struggle. It’ll only hurt more if you struggle. I’m a medicine specialized machine. Don’t worry it’ll only hurt for a moment.” Nova was rather surprised she could understand the machine that spoke like a skinny little man through a tin can. A needle came attached to another metal tendril and Nova thrashed even harder when seeing it, even crying a little from fear and screaming as it punctured her arm. The needle stayed for a moment and then it left with Nova sobbing.

“That hurt, you said it would be so bad.” The kitty whimpered as she looked at sis, rather embarrassed at her behavior. “Sis, please help me.”

“Tests complete, now, now this won’t do. This model of nanomachines are badly out dated, we’ll need to run several upgrades. She’s completely lacking an energy control type nanomachines. Let’s fix this while we can. Shall we. Now be a good girl.”

Nova knew the torturer wasn’t going to stop just now, so she closed her eyes and winced tears, knowing that what came next was much worse. An even larger and more complex needle, and worse, Nova could feel another hand lifting her shirt so her belly was bare, it was going to enter through the abdomen. She was shaking as she felt cool metal against her navel that moved a little lower and then the area went numb for a moment and then some she felt something cutting but no pain as something was inserted into a cut in her stomach and then sowing it up, the nana machines would make sure there would be no trace of a scar later.

“All done.” The machine said as it places Nova on the ground.

Nova rubbed her belly, for it still felt funny. “Sis what did it do to me?” The feline hybrid asked hoping that a third person would know what happened better. One of the mechanical hands moved again and caused Nova to yelp again but instead it simply placed an object in her hand. Nova sniffed the thing and it smelled sweet and fruity, some sort of candy, must be. At least it would be a little distraction so Nova decided to start suckling on the ‘candy’. Seems that this advanced species had lollipops too.

(I hope what I did was ok, I figured you could introduce the aliens coming in because the computer is doing it’s own thing and there’s people that don’t belong on board. Your choice)

[Witchblade]

It was amusing and annoying all at the same time. The annoyance came from the cries and whimpers that kept flowing from the cat girl’s mouth. They were beginning to grate on her nerves and there was only so much more she could take of being called sister. There was no biological connection between the two of them and there was no way Witchblade wanted to be associated with her in such a close way. The amusing part of the whole thing had to do with the obvious discomfort the girl was feeling. Even as she called for help, the halfling ignored her and continued to observe the large needle implanting things inside the cat girl. It was familiar in a discomforting way that reminded her of her brief captivity in some lab years ago. Those memories were skewed and blurry. She could not remember the faces of the humans that had captured her, nor could she recall the other vampire they had taken hostage. He’d died in her arms, something that almost any other creature would recall with bitterness and sadness. She looked back at the moment with no emotion. He’d been rather weak anyway.

The cat slowly sat up and rubbed her stomach she as asked the halfling yet another ridiculous question. Sighing, Witch ran her fingers through her hair and forced the black strands away from her eyes.

“I don’t know what they did to you, nor do I care. However, I can assume you now know the answer to one of your questions, clearly we are what they’re testing…”

She could assume that yes, but she might as well spell it out for the pathetic creature. After all, it didn’t appear to have much if any intelligence.

Suddenly a section of the wall lifted away and disappeared before Witch’s very eyes. Through the now open doorway two creatures made their way inside and creatures was certainly the only word the halfling could use to describe them. Though they had similar human characteristics, their heads were rather large and bald and they had huge, beady black eyes. No matter what angle she looked at them they appeared to be staring sightlessly at her. Their skin was a sickly grey and their frail looking bodies were covered in some kind of silver material that shimmered. It didn’t appear to be metal and certainly did not appear to provide much protection for them.

They clasped long fingered hands in front of their bodies as they observed both Witch and Nova. Paying particular attention to the fact that the cat girl was sitting on one of their long metal beds and multiple spider like creatures were around her. With a quick wave of their hands, the spider things disappeared back into the table.

“Greetings.”

Witch raised a brow but said nothing as she watched them from her leaning position on the wall.

“We have travelled to this world from one far, far away…”

She wasn’t at all certain how she could understand them but she didn’t really care.

“We have come to…observe the different species on this planet.”

“Unless I’m mistaken this appears to be more than observation.”

The grey creatures turned towards her, their unblinking eyes watching her with curiosity.

“You are speaking without moving your mouth…”

The halfling looked at them as if they had just lost their minds, “Yeah, it’s called telepathy. Unless those big beady eyes of yours are just for show I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that my mouth has been sown shut.”

The sarcasm seemed lost on the creatures, “What an interesting ability… can it be taught to others?”

“Sure, while I’m at it let me teach you how to re-grow limbs as well. And perhaps I can even show you how to blink at the same time.”

The two of them seemed especially excited by her words, though it was hard to tell since they didn’t exactly jump up and down for joy. They just kind of stood there and talked to each other in a flurry of syllables she couldn’t decipher.

“You two shall make excellent test subjects.”

Witch sighed and rolled her eyes, she’d had enough poking and prodding years ago to last her a lifetime, “I don’t remember volunteering to be your test subject.”

They looked confused at her words. So she tried again. “No.”

“You misunderstand us, we were not asking for permission…”

Why did things like this always happen to her? “Of course not… why in the name of all things evil would you ever ask for permission to cut someone open to poke around at their insides?”

They didn’t respond to her question, not that she was expecting them to. Instead those same little holes that had opened up around Nova appeared in the floor by her feet. Quickly leaping away from them Witch pulled out her twin daggers. Cutting the metallic legs off the first small spider, she impaled the second one and stepped down on the last. The sound of crunching and screeching metal filling the room and bounced off the empty walls. While the creatures were dumbfounded by how easily she had dispatched of their creations, Witch called upon her telekinesis and gave them a hard shove back. Their frail forms stumbled and fell onto their backs. Motioning for the cat girl to follow her, the halfling quickly sprinted passed the open door and into a brightly lit hallway covered in the same white walls. Not knowing exactly where to go and only having two choices, she quickly picked left and hoped it would lead her somewhere helpful.