"Ren!" Toni shouted as the gremlin colpsed into a heap, talons grasped around her head. "Daddy, somethings wrong!" Toni shouted toward Temate dropping to her knee's to press a hand to Ren's shoulder.

  Immediately he was there with her, lifting Ren up into his hands carefully. The shield curled back up into a puffy shroom on his shoulder. Toni stared at the scorch marks along its top as they slowly vanished.

  "Hey, little pet, you alright?" Temate asked as Ren twisted pained in his arms.

  A small nod from the girl as she curled up in Temate's arms dragged a sigh of relief from Toni. She looked back towards the chambers entrance, now buried in rubble. She stood and took a shaky step towards the rubble.

  The step ended in a very poorly controlled colpse onto her ass. Followed by a shaky breath as chills ran through her body.

  "You alright firestick?" Temate asked her cautiously.

  "Y-yeah I'm just... really cold right now. Tired too, just kinda hit me." She muttered in response.

  "Adrenaline will do that but..." He looked her over carefully.

  One of his hands carefully checked her face, opening each eye, running along her jaw. All this while on one knee and holding the half conscious form of Ren in one arm, curled happily into his shoulder. It was such an adorable sight Toni started ughing.

  "...Yeah, not adrenaline. Come on, upsy daisy." With a grunt and some effort Temate lifted Toni off the ground in his other arm.

  With one girl against each shoulder Temate slowly walked back the way they'd come. Toni stopped giggling only when she heard Craobh's voice.

  "W-what happened? I saw Pipuck with the workers running and-"

  "Hold on, could you take one of these two." Temate grunted.

  "Oh su-"

  "Noooooooo!" Toni whined, wrapping her arms around Temate as he moved to put her on Craobh's back.

  "I- Firestick I can't-" He began, cut off when Toni grabbed him more firmly. "-Okay okay, Surrender?"

  A few minutes ter Temate was describing the encounter to Craobh as they walked back. Toni hummed happily held in his arms as her body shivered in the cold barely held off by his warmth. It was so very cold, and Toni didn't really understand why. She was also tired.

  So.

  So tired.

  Toni woke wrapped in thick bnkets. Angry, hostile voices echoed from a distant room into the empty chamber. Her head was thick with lethargy and sweat as she stood, dragging herself groggily towards the voices.

  Waking up hot, after going to sleep freezing was an unpleasant experience in and of itself. Yet walking groggily towards multiple female voices that were familiar, yet alien? She tried to stop herself but some insatiable need to understand drove her forward.

  Toni stumbled out of the dark hall and into a vast chamber. The walls were a deep, bck metal which seemed to absorb and reflect the lights in the chamber in some defiance of physics. It made the space seem so small, yet nearly infinite at once and it gave Toni a headache.

  So instead she looked at the five figures filling the chamber, and following the light brought her to the loudest voice in the room.

  "I DON'T CARE! THEY'RE MONSTERS, BURN THEM, BURN THEM ALL TO HELL AND BACK!"

  Two figures stood facing each other at the edge of a hexagonal table of burnished deep red wood and metal. Each piece was beautifully engineered to shift and weave across each other, each segment composed of a different primary element.

  The one screaming was her.

  Her.

  Set afme, the hair of her fming self roiled in some unseen updraft seeming to be made of fme itself. Her body glowed and bright burning embers sparked off of her body to fill and light the room. It gave the impression of a sea of red stars against the bck backdrop of the walls.

  Fire Toni, Fironi? Burni? Burni.

  Burni wore no apparent clothing, her body cloaked in bright fmes that hurt to look at, but definitely did not hide her chest or waist at all. If you could force yourself to look through it.

  "Please. Calm yourself, you're not thinking straight."

  The second figure replied, brushing the burning finger her fming self pressed into it. Her.

  Again her, her hair pulled back into a taut, sharp edged pony tail in a burnished metal band. She wore the standard pair of coveralls she always wore when working back home. Bck instead of their usual deep blue, and adorned with orange red studs.

  "YOU AGREE WITH ME THOUGH! WE ALL AGREE, SO WHY ARE WE SO HESITAN-" Burni was screaming.

  She threw her hand out toward the three other hers still sitting at the table. One wore a safety orange hoody, her red hair hanging out from the drawn up hood. On the table in front of her was a hunting rifle, simple and sleek. She flinched at Burni's motion.

  The next simply grinned wide under her loose side ponytail. She wore a very revealing, very tight pair of grey overalls with bright red csps and no shirt beneath. She was heavily muscled and taller than the others, enough so to put even Temate to shame. A massive hammer leaned against the table next to her as she leaned back with a foot on the table.

  The third was squirrely, smaller and nkier than any of the others. Her hair was in a messy updo as she frantically put together and took apart a handgun in front of her. She seemed completely unaware of the conflict going on in front of her.

  "Because it ain't smart Fme" The muscled, hammer wielding Toni bellowed, though it seemed to be more the quality of her voice then her intent.

  "SINCE WHEN DO YOU CARE ABOUT THINGS BEING SMART HAMMER?!" Fme replied.

  "For the same reason I started caring Fme." The orange hoodied Toni hissed. "Because we're in dire straights with literally three people we know we can trust."

  "Thank you Hunter, we have to be safe. Our lives and the lives of our loved ones matter more than strangers." The coverall adorned Toni replied.

  "FUCKING- AAAGH THEY WANT TO DO IT TOO! IF YOU'D JUST STOP BEING A LITTLE B-"

  "Stop. We have a guest." Coverall Toni said, her eyes looking directly into Toni's.

  They were sharp eyes, calcuting. Not cold though, a fire burned beneath them, ready to spring up as needed.

  "Ma'am." She thumped her feet together and gave Toni a cops salute.

  Toni tried to reply in kind but stumbled. Before she'd hit the ground heavy, warm arms caught her.

  "Wooooah there smalls. I got ya, here let's getya to your seat." Hammer lifted her like a babe as she said that. With careful, surprisingly quick motion, she moved around the table to sit her down in a soft cushioned chair. Toni could swear that wasn't there before.

  "W-why am I here?" Toni asked, the where was she seemed pretty straightforward. If a bit crazy.

  "To decide." Coveralls said, sitting down in a chair on the side to her right.

  "To tell us to fucking burn the bears!" Fme said as she sat immediately to Toni's left.

  "Hey! Don't go pressuring her!" Hunter, sat to her left hissed.

  "Now now, it's true, either we burn em, or we let em be." Hammer barked as she sat with a ugh. "And it's bosses job to break the stalemate."

  "Break th- but there's five of you?" Toni questioned.

  "Correct. Hunter and I - Forge by the way, since I know you're trying to name us something insipid like 'Burni' or 'Coveralls'-" That statement got an awkward blush out of Toni "-Believe we should leave the bears be. It's too risky. Hammer and Fme want to do something about their whole... Ensvement of intelligent creatures."

  "But Hammer said-"

  "I'm agreein because otherwise Fme here will make it a fight and I'll have to bonk her over the head for burnin you up from the inside out." Hammer said, pointing her thumb across the table to Fme who snarled at her.

  "What about um-" Toni motioned towards the final other Toni who was still field stripping her gun.

  "Repair. She... Doesn't exactly care. Too fixated on fixing the Power burnout right now, but there's always something distracting her. She'll go with the majority. Which is why we brought you here."

  "I- Who-"

  "We're not real-" Forge began.

  "HEY, YES WE FUCKIN- MMMMPhh hmph" Fme cut in, only to have a metal muzzle pced around her mouth with a gesture from Forge. It was hard to tell, but she seemed to be blushing.

  "We're not real, this is a fever dream. We're just parts of you, personified from your core [Power]s, by you." Forge poked her finger into Toni's chest much like Fme had to Forge when Toni first arrived. "To help you make a fucking decision before it's too te."

  "Oh." Toni said dejectedly.

  "Awww sweetbun don't you mind her. We're real as you are in the end, it's all just how your mind is thinkin ya know?" Hammer assured Toni, and that did make her smile a little. "I'll always be your Hammer, and that's why I gotta agree, we gotta hammer out this little nitpick of yours."

  "W-what nitpick is that?"

  "Killing." Hunter muttered.

  The rest of the table looked to her. Each face a different reaction to the statement. On Hammers, reassurance. On Fmes, judgement and anger. On Hunter's, apathy and on Forge's, grim determination.

  "How's that a nitpick?" Toni replied, trying not to sound offended.

  "Breath princess. It ain't a judgement, but you been wiffle wafflin between bein willin to kill and not kill since we got here." Hammer stated.

  "What! I've been killing plenty since I got here! Ho-"

  "When you're pointed at them and told to." Forge cut her objection off. "You won't decide for yourself, and that's the problem. You keep telling us you're willing to kill, yet then you pull back." Forge waved her hand and Fme roared in relief.

  "FUCKING FINALLY! LISTEN BITCH, YOU WANNA BE THE FUCKING WEAK ASS BITCH YOU WERE BACK HOME?!" She snarled into Toni's face.

  "Hey!" That angered Toni. "I wasn't a 'weak ass bitch' I stood u-"

  "YOU LET FUCKIN JAKE WALK ALL AROUND YOU CAUSE YOU WOULDN'T JUST KICK HIS FUCKIN NUTS AND MAKE HIM STOP!"

  "That's different! That's not life or d-"

  "IT'S FUCKING WEAK, ARE WE WEAK?! CAN WE NOT FUCKING FIGHT FOR WHAT WE BELIEVE IN?!"

  "I absolutely can!" Toni was really mad now, she stood and Fme stood with her. "I'll fucking end you right now!"

  "THEN FUCKING DO IT! I'M RIGHT HERE!"

  "Fme." Forge spoke in sharp warning.

  "SHUT IT FORGE. DO IT! FUCKING DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING YOU PATHETIC. WEAK. SELF-IMPORTANT COWARD! YOU THINK YOUR FATHER WOULD HESITATE LIKE THIS? IS HE AS WEAK A-"

  THUMP

  Toni's fist burned as Fme slumped backwards into her chair, rubbing her nose. Toni was furious. She stood tall above Fme and gred down at her.

  "Don't you fucking dare insult my father. He is the bravest, strongest, awe inspiring man I've ever met until Temate." She growled down at Fme who smiled in response.

  "You're damn right he fucking is." Fme replied, her fire robing her dimming to make her chest very apparent. "God that was a pretty hot punch, we're fucking hot right Forge?"

  "Hahahahahahahahaha!" Hammer guffawed before Forge replied. "Yeah, we pretty hot mates, hot headed too. So now we're cooled a bit, what we gonna do?"

  "Well let's look at the information we have." Forge stated. "Why should we kill?"

  "For our protection or our loved ones." Toni snapped as she sat back down. "I'm standing firm on that. Just because I don't want to go around killing if people disagree with me, doesn't mean I won't do it." Making that admission, especially here, seemed so freeing to Toni.

  Her dad had all these rules, but in the end what was he really trying to do? Do what he could for those he loved. To keep them safe, and help others live well.

  "So why would we not act now?" Hunter added quietly.

  "Why would we? Our loved ones aren't in danger, and neither are we, except by the darkl-"

  "Broken." The voice was shrill and quiet.

  For a moment everyone turned to look at Hunter, but she had her head lifted, eyes staring wide at Repair. When Toni turned she saw the frazzled self looking at her.

  "He's broken. They're broken. Fix, must fix." Repair said, still field stripping her gun, not even slowing.

  "What's broken?" Forge asked at the same time as Hammer.

  "Daddy is broken. This hurts him, breaks him. Must fix, that's why we should act." Repair replied.

  "What? What's wrong with- Hey!" Toni smmed a fist on the table as Repair went back to focusing on her gun, muttering 'Fix' over and over again and again.

  "I noticed too." Hunter whispered painfully. "He's hurting, something about this hurts him a lot."

  "Yeah, I saw that too, which is why they need to FUCKING BURN." Fme snapped, her fmes fring up for a moment.

  "Rex." Forge said. "I saw none of this, and by Hammers confusion I assume she did not either." Hammer nodded in affirmation at Forge's raised eyebrow. "But if this is true..." Forge turned to look at Toni.

  They all turned to look at Toni.

  Toni was not looking at them, she was staring at Repair. Her face curled in deep thought and remembrance, and anger. She shot out of her chair and smmed her hand on the table.

  "I didn't notice." She mumbled, staring at repair. "But I did. Did I? He told me. He told me he didn't want to push me to do things that I- and I told him I trust him, but of course he wouldn't push me on this."

  She looked up into the endless dark above to think. That very first night, when they were given their private chambers. Before those were filled with all the new bears, goblins and daog they rescued.

  "I say we just fuckin kill them all! The bastards are ensving hundreds, maybe thousands of people!" She had screamed.

  "How would we do that?" Temate asked after a long pause.

  "I dunno, get em all to lead a charge into the darklings base and give em faulty water breathing potions? Let em drown with em, probably be the easiest." She replied thoughtlessly.

  "I coul' probably do tha'" Came Pipuck's voice.

  Toni had stopped pacing angrily then. "Oh r-really?"

  "Yeah, I'll look into i'" They replied.

  "Is good pn. They do bad, should die." Ren said confidently.

  "Yeah!" Toni shouted back. "Yeah they should!"

  Then the next day when she apologized for her behavior, and that she hadn't meant it. Temate's downcast expression which she'd ignored. Why had she ignored it?

  Pipuck hadn't, they'd kept working on a 'bad' waterbreathing potion. Surrender had been observing and making a list of the most dangerous, or most hostile to a freedom for the Nameless. The ones who she would recommend to lead the charge.

  Only Toni hadn't noticed it. Or the pain in his eyes everytime they rescued a daog or goblin prison group. Everytime he or a bear would order them around because otherwise they wouldn't follow.

  The way he would step in front of anything living to take the blow, take the pain. He was always taking the hits, taking the pain. Twisting his own pains beneath the surface to prevent anyone from worrying.

  That she'd noticed, but why had she never thought to do something to alleviate that? There was the sex, sure. Hot as it was to get herself off as she listened to him take Surrender, Fraar or even Kea while she was denied. This was deeper then just fucking sex.

  Toni lowered her head as heat filled her body. Everything was gone but her and Repair. Repair stepped to her and pced the gun she'd been working on in her hand.

  "Wake up. Fix it." She said with a weary smile.

  "I will, whatever it takes if it can help Daddy, or Ren or Pip. Anything."

  "Burn them." Fme stood in Repairs pce, grinning.

  "Drown them." Toni said in reply with a wry grin of her own.

  "Hunt them, corner them so they can't get away." Hunter stood, looking up into Toni's eyes.

  "Until the right moment." Toni nodded in response.

  "Hammer it home, again and again and again until they can't move!" Hammer bellowed with a ugh.

  "Relentlessly." Toni nodded in response.

  "Make it perfect." Forge said, stone faced with a passion behind her eyes.

  "Always."

  Toni woke wrapped in thick fur covers. Her brow heavy with sweat but her mind clearer then ever. She tossed the furs off of her and stood, naked she noted absentmindedly. She was immediately pressed with a firm hand on her waist.

  "Now now ss, rex you pushe' too har' with tha' bomb of yours. Burned through all your power a' once." Pipuck said as they pushed her back onto the bed.

  As they did so several goblins and daog in the room watched. One familiar one in his green tunic and pants came up to take her hand.

  "I am gd to see you awake ma'am. You saved more of my brothers and sisters, I am forever in your debt if there's anything you need, just ask." Malkus told her.

  She furrowed her brow. "There may be. Pip." She turned to look at Pip who raised an eyebrow as they grabbed and dabbed some weird blue inky substance on her. "I'll do it Pip. How many can you make?"

  "How many you nee'?" Pip grinned to her. "Oh, an' you min' if I recrui' some locals? Pretty sure Malkus an' co woul' wan' in on this."

  The goblin turned his head between them in confusion at the mention of his name.

  "Want in on what? What are you pnning?!" He said with one raised, inquisitive eyebrow.

  "Of course and..." Toni turned her head, searching the room. "Where's Daddy?"

  "Mate? 'e took off to go see to the goblins." Pip expined.

  "What? Why didn't Surrender go?!" Toni mewled a bit more pathetically then she'd meant to.

  "She's still recoverin' too, an' 'e wante' to smuggle some of the one's who didn't wan' to figh' bu' wante' to be free ou'." Pip expined.

  "Oh, good." Toni replied and Pip simply nodded back to her.

  "Seriously! What are you talking about!" Malkus huffed.

  Character Update!

  Been awhile since I've done one of these but here's a quick update for where Toni, Pip and Surrender stand. Temate's will come after another thing ter.

  Power formatPower Name (Previous Evolution, Pre-previous Evolution, continue)

  Toni Terosia | Power Level 3Tier 1 Powers | Hunter's Instinct, Rapid RepairTier 2 Powers | Complex Fshforge (Fshforge), Patchwork, Firebrand, Keen Eye, Ringing Blow (Hammer Down), Quick ShapeTier 3 Powers | Inner Confgration (Burning Body, Eternal Fme)

  Surrender | Power Level 3Tier 1 Powers | Night SightTier 2 Powers | Shadow's Strength (Tower's Shadow), Skitter, Disrupt Thought (Sap Strike), EnshadowTier 3 Powers | Primal Instinct (Wild Hunt, Wild One)

  Pipuck | Power Level 2Tier 1 Powers | Potent Mixture, Nature's Bounty, Fluid Idea, Living EarthTier 2 Powers | Trick of the Light, Last Light (Fairy Light), Glimmer, False Flesh

  Notably, Pipuck has less Power than the others, I wonder why that is hmmmm?