The autumn wind carried Angelo's curses across the clearing as he crashed into the ground for what felt like the hundredth time. Dirt and leaves flew up around him like angry confetti while Bob and Neiva winced from their safe distance. His evolved aura flickered around him, the orange energy wings he'd manifested already dissipating like morning mist.
Red's crimson smoke poured from Angelo's body, materializing beside him with that trademark predatory grin. "Come on, sleeping beauty!" He grabbed Angelo's collar, hauling him up with unnecessary enthusiasm. "The ground's not gonna kiss you awake!"
Neiva edged closer to Blue, who stood watching with scholarly disapproval radiating from his perfect posture. "This looks a lot harder than I imagined," she said, brushing stray hair from her face.
"Indeed." Blue's measured tones carried centuries of patience. "Mastering aerial locomotion requires precise control over multiple energy constructs simultaneously. And that takes time to truly master. Time we could better spend simply traversing the mountains directly."
"He's got to manage the thrusters, wing movements, balance... Sounds difficult." Neiva's mind raced through the mechanics, making her dizzy just thinking about it.
Blue turned to her, "Ordinarily, yes. However, our unique condition forced us to develop extraordinary multitasking capabilities. Angelo can handle the technical aspects." His scholarly certainty wavered. "The challenge lies in acclimating to entirely new sensations and movements. Like learning to walk, but in three dimensions."
"I can do this!" Angelo's mental voice cut through their shared consciousness with steel determination. He pushed himself up, brushing dirt from his clothes with sharp movements.
"Fascinating." Blue's response could have frozen a volcano. "Your previous attitude suggested rather different limitations. If I recall correctly, you claimed to be, and I quote, 'at the bottom of the barrel.'"
Angelo's jaw tightened as he formed new wings of forged energy, the orange constructs humming with barely contained power. "That was before. When I only saw this fractured life as one big mess."
"Hate to burst your bubble," Red lounged against a nearby tree, "but you're still pretty much a mess!"
"Thanks for the reminder." Angelo's dry tone couldn't quite hide his exhaustion. But something shifted in his expression as he looked up at the sky, his voice dropping to something raw and honest. "But this fractured life means something different now. Bill believed in me - in us. He died protecting that belief." The words seemed to physically pain him. "I owe it to him to become everything he saw in me. We all do."
His evolved aura erupted around him with renewed intensity, the orange light so bright it made shadows dance across the clearing. Red straightened, his usual manic energy settling into something more focused as he studied his original.
Then that familiar predatory grin spread across Red's face, but this time it carried warmth instead of mockery. "Well shit, when you put it that way..." He strode forward, climbing onto Angelo's back like an unusually aggressive koala. "Let your chaos specialist handle them stabilizers!"
"What exactly are you doing?" Blue's scholarly composure cracked with exasperation.
"Making myself useful for once," Red shot back. "Just fly, Angelo! I'll counter-balance when you wobble. Let you focus on the basics without eating dirt again."
Understanding dawned in Angelo's eyes. "That... That could actually work."
"Charming as this display of cooperation may be," Blue's mental voice carried the warmth of a freezer, "sentiment alone won't achieve aerodynamic mastery."
"Watch us!" Angelo's challenge rang across the clearing. "Ready, Red?"
"Born ready, baby!"
Orange energy exploded from Angelo's manifested wings as he launched skyward. Each time he tilted too far or lost altitude, Red countered with short bursts of crimson energy. These micro-adjustments kept them airborne. Within minutes, they were soaring in wide circles above the clearing.
Bob, Blue, and Neiva watched in growing amazement as Angelo's movements grew more confident. He translated his experience with energy tendrils into banking turns and controlled dives, muscle memory adapting to this new form of movement. When he finally touched down before them, hovering a few feet off the ground, triumph radiated from him like physical heat.
"You actually did it!" Neiva bounced with excitement, her earlier worry forgotten.
"Well I'll be damned." Bob's weathered face split in a genuine smile. "That's something else, lad."
Even Blue's scholarly disapproval softened slightly. "Your progress is... Noteworthy."
"No time for victory laps." Angelo's expression hardened as reality crashed back. "Red, Blue - we move now." His duplicates dissolved into smoke, streaming back into his body as he turned to Neiva and Bob. "Get to the shelter and stay there until this is over. No matter what you hear. Promise me."
Neiva's hands twisted together as Bob gently guided her away. "Be careful," she called back. "Please... just come back."
Angelo watched them go before turning toward Novaria, his evolved wings catching the morning light. Minutes later he soared above the mountain peaks, wind whipping past him as memories rose unbidden - his childhood in Ashford, his first kill, Bill's final smile... He closed his eyes, letting the altitude give him new perspective. Just as he'd broken free from gravity's hold, maybe he could shed other chains as well.
The mountains fell away behind him as he flew toward whatever chaos awaited in Novaria, carrying the weight of both duty and possibility on his newly forged wings.
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[Back in Lumecent]
High above Lumecent's broken streets, the woman they called Beetle turned her head with predatory precision, eyes locking onto the exact corner where Sleeser and Force crouched in hiding. Her weathered face showed no emotion as she raised one gauntleted arm, fingers spread wide like a pianist about to strike.
"RUN!" Axel's desperate warning echoed off the buildings, but too late.
Hundreds of stones burst from her gauntlet like bullets from a machine gun, shredding through the wall behind which Sleeser and Force had taken cover. Force's body moved with battle-forged instinct - he threw himself over Sleeser, one arm protecting his captain's head while the other shielded his own. The rocks hammered against him like angry hornets made of stone, each impact driving grunts from his throat that he refused to let become screams.
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Axel became a blur of motion, his evolved aura leaving trails of blue light as he bounded between buildings. His blades flashed in the sunlight as he struck at Beetle again and again, more to divide her attention than cause real damage. Each time her stone-covered hands reached for him, he twisted away with desperate grace, his enhanced speed letting him dance just beyond her grasp.
The barrage finally ceased as Beetle turned to deal with this annoying blue firefly. Force's arm dropped limply to his side, blood trickling from a hundred small wounds across his body. "Broken, captain," he reported with his usual calm, as if discussing the weather. Bits of rock fell from the grooves they'd carved in his flesh.
"Damn it all." Sleeser conjured golden metal that wrapped around Force's shattered arm, forming a rigid cast. "Ready to move?"
Force's nod was all the answer he needed. They launched themselves toward the aerial battle, where Axel continued his deadly dance with their impossibly powerful opponent.
"Axel," Force's steady voice carried through their communicators, "prepare to disengage. I'll increase gravity when we close."
The moment arrived near enough, Axel disengaged with fluid grace. Beetle spun to face this new threat, her gauntlet rising – but suddenly the air itself seemed to thicken around her. Force's power grabbed at her like invisible hands, trying to drag her from the sky.
"NOW!" Sleeser's command cracked like a whip.
A fierce grin split Axel's face as his aura pulsed with new intensity. "Mach Five!" Blue light erupted around him as he became a living projectile, ricocheting between buildings faster than the eye could track. The air crackled with the energy of his movement as he built up speed, somehow immune to Force's gravity manipulation through sheer velocity.
Beetle fought against Force's power, making him strain visibly to maintain his hold. Sweat beaded on his forehead as veins stood out on his neck. "Just... a little longer..."
Axel's final leap shattered every window within a hundred feet, the sonic boom of his movement echoing across the city. He crossed his blades before him as he shot toward their target like a bullet made of blue light. "Final Velocity!"
"Futile." The single word carried absolute certainty as Beetle's brown aura flared. She broke free of Force's gravitational prison, spinning to meet Axel's attack head-on. Their collision sent them both crashing through the nearest skyscraper in an explosion of concrete and glass.
"AXEL!" Sleeser and Force shouted together. They bounded after their companion, using platforms of stone that materialized beneath their feet only to crumble away moments later.
The dust cleared to reveal a nightmare – Beetle stood unmoved, one stone-covered hand wrapped around Axel's throat. His body jerked helplessly as he clawed at her grip.
"Tell me, Luminian dog," her voice dripped contempt, "what made you think this would work?"
Axel managed to spit words through his closing windpipe: "Go... to... hell..."
She raised her other hand, but froze as Sleeser and Force prepared to attack. With casual cruelty, she positioned Axel between them like a shield.
"Careful now," she taunted. "Wouldn't want to hurt your friend, would you?" Her smile carried decades of hatred. "I must say, you're the most competent resistance I've faced today. Though that's not saying much, considering the others I've slaughtered."
Rage transformed Axel's face as his aura suddenly flared like a newborn sun. The flash of pure light caught everyone off guard – even Beetle's iron grip loosened for a fraction of a second. It was enough. Axel tore free, tackling his companions through the broken wall behind them. They plummeted toward the street below as their enemy rubbed furiously at her dazzled eyes.
"My eyes!" Sleeser's complaint carried genuine pain as they fell.
"Sorry." Axel's voice was raw from near-strangulation. "Only decent trick a light Auron's got."
They landed hard but intact, looking up to see Beetle floating above them like a hawk studying wounded prey. Sleeser's fingers found his communication device, desperation clear in every word:
"Prime, this is Sigma! We need reinforcements - could you spare an Arch or Master ranks? We can't handle this alone!"
Static crackled before a neutral voice responded: "Negative, Sigma. No reinforcements available."
"What do you mean, negative?" Rage made Sleeser's voice crack. "Where are they all?"
A new voice cut through: "Several secure facilities are under attack. All high-rank Aurons are engaged. Find a way!"
"Damn it all to hell..." Sleeser's curse faded to nothing as Beetle descended toward them, her stone-covered form promising only pain.
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Angelo soared over Novaria's skyline, his heart sinking at the destruction below. The thirty-minute flight had felt like an eternity – who knew what chaos had unfolded in his absence? From his bird's eye view, he could make out several battles scattered across the city like angry beehives, some clearly more intense than others.
"Those larger conflicts," Blue's analytical voice cut through their shared mind, "must be where the evolved Aurons are fighting. We should focus our attention there."
"Let's move." Angelo banked toward the nearest battle, keeping high to maintain the element of surprise. His wings of forged energy caught the light like stained glass as he glided silently above the chaos.
"Great plan, genius," Red's mental voice dripped sarcasm, "but how exactly are we supposed to tell friend from foe from up here?"
"Like this."
Angelo shared his strategy through their mental link, painting a picture of a coordinated attack. Red's enthusiasm bubbled through their connection: "Oh hell yeah! Though last time we tried something like this, it kind of blew up in our faces."
"It's different now – we've got forged energy on our side." Angelo's satisfaction crumbled as reality hit him. "Wait... damn it. You two would need to fly properly, not just float around as smoke. And neither of you went through crash-course flight training."
"Literally," Red couldn't resist adding.
"Is that all?" Blue's calm response carried dangerous confidence. "Give me a moment."
Suddenly their shared consciousness flooded with Blue's rapid analysis of flight mechanics. The scholarly aspect emerged as smoke several meters above Angelo, materializing in a flash of azure light.
For one heart-stopping moment he plummeted like a stone – then his evolved aura erupted around him. Instead of wings, he manifested bulky gauntlets and boots of forged energy, each sporting precisely positioned holes that released controlled bursts of power. He rose to hover before Angelo's stunned face with perfect stability.
"But- but-" Angelo sputtered, his wings faltering slightly in shock.
"Save your protests," Blue cut him off with scholarly precision. "Our minds are connected, or have you forgotten? We share the results of your training. Have Red or I ever practiced your energy tendril technique? Yet we use it flawlessly. The same applies to our evolved abilities."
"You... you're just parasites!" Angelo's outrage echoed across the sky. "Feeding off my hard work!"
Blue ignored the accusation, positioning himself with mechanical efficiency. "Red, take your position. Time is critical."
Red materialized in a swirl of crimson smoke, but Angelo's jaw dropped at the sight. His chaotic aspect hovered there wearing a child's propeller beanie and what looked like a helicopter rotor strapped to his back.
Blue's long-suffering sigh could have powered a wind farm. "Red, please. This is hardly the time. You look ridiculous." He gestured in exasperation, immediately dropping several feet when his gesturing hand stopped providing thrust.
"What?" Red's innocence wouldn't have fooled a toddler. Both Angelo and Blue glared until he threw up his hands. "Fine! You two are no fun at all." His ridiculous accessories dissolved, reforming into sleek glider wings with a single powerful thruster on his back.
"Now," Angelo's voice dropped to something dangerous as they formed a triangle in the sky. Red and Blue extended their hands toward him, crimson and azure energy swirling between them like oil and water refusing to mix.
Angelo could feel the moment approaching – that critical point where the energies would try to tear themselves apart like magnets with opposing poles. But this time, his forged energy gauntlets let him physically push back against the violent reaction, forcing stability through sheer will.
The result hovered between them – a sphere of perfectly contained chaos, red and blue energy spiraling around each other in an endless dance of barely controlled destruction. Just waiting to be unleashed.
"Ready?!" Angelo's call carried the weight of vengeance.
"Ready!" His duplicates responded as one, their combined power humming through the air like the world's deadliest tuning fork. The real battle was about to begin.