Sun Never Sets 2: Fires of Friendship

"Rise and shine, Agent Sentry."

Flash's eyelids felt very, very heavy. For some reason, he couldn't open his eyes. In the blackness inside his mind, Flash felt his wrists were bound together behind his back, with his back held firmly to some kind of thick wooden pole. Constrained too were his ankles, tied to the pole and leaving him completely suspended in the air. The atmosphere around him smelled of ashen, burning metal, and the sounds of burning flames were present in the environment around him as the heat slowly rose to an unbearable level. He didn't know where he was, but things around him were quickly getting worse.

He heard footsteps and a woman's voice. She spoke in a dark, sultry tone, a voice that seemed to revel in the chaos she was witnessing.

"Look around you. You were sent here to save this place and it's already falling apart," She said, "Pathetic. Humans are always so predictable, aren't they? Playing with forces they don't understand."

Flash Sentry knew that voice. The condescending tension it brought, the total arrogant confidence that the words she used spoke to, all of it was something Flash had heard somewhere before. But his head was too hazy to connect the pieces in his mind, and he could feel smoke filling his nose as his breathing became heavier. He tried to open his eyes...

"Do you feel it?" The woman asked. "Do you feel the chaos deep within this place? Stirring, waking up, returning to this fragile world it left in its wake? It's not going to bend its knee to the powers of old, you know."

Slowly, his eyelids parted, and through the foggy organic lenses encasing his retinas he saw a bleak, pitch black sky, burning plumes of fire drifting throughout it, framing a mountain completely split at the top, allowing a hellish inferno of lava to pour from its shattered peaks. The forest and town within it were consumed by fire, death, and what shadow of whatever oppressive magics caused this nightmare.

And before him, facing away, stood a woman in a long, black trench coat, with swirling orange curls of hair running down from every angle of her head. Both of her hands were clasped behind her back, a strange and unnatural color of orange tainting her skin, and as Flash's eyes fully took focus he watched in horror as she turned around to face him.

The recognition was already there, he knew in his mind who he was going to see when she turned, but he was too frozen in place to do anything about it. Even if he weren't tied to this impossibly tall electrical pole, he didn't think he could muster any meaningful action.

So the woman turned, and he saw her face. A cruel smile was permanently affixed across a smooth, unnaturally perfect face. Clothed in all black tactical gear beneath her coat, but the woman's features were beyond conventionally attractive, which made Flash's terror only rise further. Perfectly black sunglasses hid her eyes, but did nothing to mask the maniacal and twisted expression on her face as she approached him. Evil that masqueraded behind beauty was repulsive to Flash, and he knew already that this woman was pure evil.

"Why such a sour face, Agent Sentry?" The woman leaned in close to him, a devious wrinkle in her cheeks following an intrigued raise of her eyebrows as Flash let his vision drop. "Are you... surprised to see me?"

A choking sensation built in Flash's throat as he tried to say something. The woman didn't touch him, but stayed uncomfortably close as he did his best to muster a response.

"Adagio..." Flash whispered the woman's name. Adagio Dazzle, a former ally that betrayed his unit and supposedly died amidst a demon attack. Someone he met and fought again as a demon during the Canterlot City Incident. A person he never wanted to see again in his life, but somehow kept finding a way to worm her way back into it.

"Yes?" She let the word linger for a very, very long moment. Adagio's lips seemed to peel up and away even further as Flash spoke her name. She was absolutely delighting in the mental agony and confusion she was inflicting upon him.

"You were supposed to be dead..." Flash closed his eyes again. She was supposed to be dead. He opened them back up, and he was still there. She was supposed to be dead.

Adagio let herself lean back, standing at her full height but still keeping direct eye contact with him. She'd always been slightly taller than him, but with him bound up on the pole they were just barely at eye level. Her teeth, seemingly drawn to razor points parted away from each other, and she let out a wicked cackle, Flash's bewilderment igniting some kind of black-hearted joy as she fell into a total bout of villainous laughter.

"Dead! Me? Oh, how naive you are, living in your own little fantasy world..." Adagio calmed herself, shaking her head and raising a hand in a threatening gesture.

Flash still couldn't believe he was seeing her again. She was supposed to be dead.

"But it's time to wake up, Agent Sentry. Wake up, and breathe in the chaos."

Her hand shot forward and grasped his throat tightly, and for a split second Flash felt his airways constrict, leaving him choking as he screwed his eyes shut and awaited the end.

"Wake up!"

"Wake up!"

...

"Hey, wake up!"

[Somewhere In the Blacktail Forest]
[Thursday, 5:45pm]

Flash Sentry's eyes suddenly jolted open. He took a breath, completely free of any hands around it, and found that he could move his body freely. At least, more freely than he could've when he was unconscious. Looking down, he saw that his ankles were chained together, and his wrists were secured just as tightly behind his back. He wasn't strung up on a pole somewhere, though, he was inside a dank and dusty room, with something else behind him that shifted and squirmed on its own accord.

His neck felt stiff, but Flash let his muscles there stretch out as he looked around this room he'd been confined in. From his place on the ground, he saw a few empty shelves, a tightly shut door, and a very dangerous looking hook hanging from the ceiling. A short slit in the wall to his right acted as a window to the outside, where he could see the sun beginning its descent in the sky and the bright blue of midday exchanging for a darker tone. Whatever catastrophe he'd seen in his dream was just a figment of his mind. A relief on that front, but he was still knocked out by a demon, chained up, and then brought here for whatever reason, alongside...

"You awake now, bud?" The young, silver haired man he'd found captured in the farmhouse was right behind him, the two having been chained back-to-back together at their wrists, completely incapable of going anywhere. "You sounded like you were having one hell of a nightmare."

"I don't know if this is any better," Flash replied. "Come out of one nightmare and straight into another."

"You can say that again..." the man said.

"You want to tell me what's going on here?" Flash asked. He tried to look back at the man, but only could see a small sliver of him out of the corner of his eye.

"You're a horse-rider, aren't you? Equestrian man, from the so-called Harmonic States?" The man's faint accent became a bit more pronounced when speaking of Flash's country, and the diminutive title of "horse-rider". It was apparent this man wasn't fond of the place Flash called home. "Tell me first, what's a guy like you doing all the way out here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, bird-boy." Whoever this guy was, Flash could now clearly tell he was from Griffonia, one of Equestria's largest rival states. Unlike the H.S.,the Republic of Griffonia had a mythical creature adorning their flag, and aligned their national heritage with that of mountains, the sky, and as the technology developed, proficiency in flight. That fancy feathered jacket he wore must've been Griffonian made, and the way he spoke and the styled spikes of his hair told the exact same story. On top of that, there was a large amount of animosity between the two countries, even in times of peace. "Little bit far from the roost, aren't we?"

"Ha-ha, very funny," The man said dryly. "Bet the pony you rode in on had a laugh when you thought that one up."

"Unfortunately, the pony I rode in on is crushed at the bottom of a ditch," Flash said.

"Ah, yikes."

"My name's Flash Sentry," he continued, shifting his bound hands in an attempt to reach for something one of the pouches on the back of his belt. As his wrists shifted, the man he was tied to expressed discomfort as his own wrists shifted opposite.

"Ah! Careful, bud..." The man's dry jesting dropped for a scowl and a rough tone. "I can wrench your cuffs as hard as I want too, y'know."

"Sorry," Flash said, but he had what he was looking for. He flipped the photo of Agent Inkwell over in his thumbs and did his best to show it to the man behind him. "I came here looking for this woman, have you seen her?"

The man looked over his shoulder, craning his neck as far as he could to get a good look at the small picture that was behind, held just above the floor. Flash couldn't completely tell, but it seemed like the man did show some level of recognition. He wouldn't be given a formal confirmation on that, though.

"What, your date ran off on you?" The man teased.

"Have you seen her or not?"

"What are you, some kind of cop?" Still with a teasing smile, the man laughed a little. "Nah, you don't look the type. You're a government man, aren't you?"

Flash rolled his eyes. This frickin' guy...

"How about you tell me what you're doing here first? Or maybe who you are?" Flash responded. "Thinking of you in my head as 'this frickin guy' is getting tiring, you know."

"Call me Gabriel. Gabriel Gale." the man responded, finally ending his toying with Flash. "I'm with the... how is it said in your language... then Griffonian Tactical Force for the Otherworldly."

Right, the Griffonian TFO group. Their government's division of supernatural investigators and monster hunters. Gabriel's acronym wasn't their actual title, but it was the closest approximation from their language that retained their acronym. From what Flash knew, the TFO did roughly the same thing as Flash's own SRAPH agency, meaning that Griffonia was just as interested in whatever was going on in Hollow Shades as the States were, if not moreso.

"Okay, Gabriel..." Flash nodded his head. "So you're a government man too. What are you doing here?"

"Military intelligence back home has been tracking a terrorist that's potentially connected to the paranormal activity in this area," Gabriel explained, a bit of jadedness seeping through into his explanation. "Put shortly, the guys up top requested an investigation, and I, being a capable and beloved member of my division, was sent out into yet another hellhole to get thrashed by monsters and possessed zombie-people."

Flash couldn't help but relate, given his own situation. "I feel you there."

"So what about you, pony-boy?" Gabriel asked. "Let me guess, that woman is another one of your spies, and the people here have kidnapped her for intruding?"

Flash scoffed. "That's a bit too good to be a guess."

"It's the nanites in my brain," Gabriel smiled again. "They let me read your thoughts like a book..."

Flash paused before responding. His eyes narrowed.

"Nah, I'm just messing with you. The nanites only help block out the demonic funk in the air," Gabriel shook his head. "I heard those villagers at the church talking about catching a woman sneaking around their big cathedral. And you already met their big boss, the guy in the black armor."

"What's their deal, anyway? That knight?"

"I wish I could tell you. All I can put together is that the Shadow Angel resembles the demon they worship, so they let the thing in and now it's taking hold of their minds. I've seen the process happen. The knight casts some kind of spell over them, and by the next day they've lost their mind."

"You don't think we got the same treatment, do you?"

Gabriel was quiet. "I dunno. Like I said, I've got nanites that are supposed to block out that kind of magic, but I don't know what kind of protection they give you in the States..."

"Yeah... I think I should be fine..." Flash muttered after a moment of thought. He hadn't been given any specific form of immunization, but he'd noticed that his tolerance to magical effects had increased drastically after the Canterlot City Incident. His department heads noticing this resistance may very well have been the reason he had seen far more sensitive and dangerous missions, but internally he wasn't willing to say he was completely safe if the Angel had attempted some sort of conversion of his mind. "I've got something of a high tolerance around spellcasting."

"Ah, a natural gift for this line of work, then..." Gabriel said. "Keep an eye on yourself, though. If you start feeling like you're not yourself, well... You may be in trouble. I'm not sure about myself, tell the truth. Leaving my protection completely to tiny machines in my brain doesn't feel right, either."

There was a shuffling sound near the door. Both Flash and Gabriel looked towards it, and a moment later it burst open. Two women cloaked in dark robes sporting capes and veils over their faces barged through the door with revolvers held at the ready. The two restrained men tensed up, starting to push against each other in an attempt to stand up.

The veiled women did not seem intent to threaten them though, as soon as they saw the room only had two captives their weapons lowered and they signaled to someone standing just outside the door.

Another robed woman stepped through, this one taller and with nothing to hide her face. She looked quite old, her hair a stark black color that held no shine or vibrancy, her eyes and chin both with a bit of skin sagging beneath them, this was clearly someone straining their longevity. The woman looked over Flash and Gabriel momentarily, and then looked to one of her followers.

Without a word, her veiled subordinate crouched down to their level and waved a free hand in the air around them in some mystic fashion. A blue aura sparkled into view for a moment, holding around them as the woman seemed to analyze the magic, as if she were getting some kind of information out of it.

When it faded, she looked back to the older woman and spoke in a satisfied tone.

"They're clean. No magic signatures, period."

The older woman looked a bit concerned. "If they're not magic users they'd be prime targets for direct possession. Curious that the Angel was unable to corrupt them..."

"You ladies wouldn't mind helping us out, would you?" Gabriel tilted his head with annoyance. "Kinda getting tired of sitting here."

The two veiled women looked to their elder for confirmation, and when the older woman nodded both of her subordinates drew out swords and sliced twice the direction of Flash and Gabriel. Rather than feel cuts, the steel cuffs holding them down were split apart, allowing both of the men freedom to stand.

"Much appreciated," Gabriel said. "You wouldn't happen to have any cigarettes on you, would you?"

One of the veiled women shrugged, reached into her robes, and flicked out a white rectangular packet. Her middle finger pressed the lid of it open just so that a single cigarette flew out, which Gabriel promptly caught with a swipe of his hand. He put the thin, rolled up tube of tobacco between his lips and promptly felt down the sides of his pants for something that wasn't there. He was patting his pockets, checking inside them and disappointedly finding nothing.

"Ah! Those jerks took my lighter."

Putting the pack away the woman then extended hand to Gabriel, swiping her index finger across her thumb in a snapping motion but instead creating a small, controlled flame from the tip of her thumb. Gabriel's irritated expression softened, and he graciously leaned forward to light the end of his cigarette off of the anomalously produced light.

He took a breath in, and then let out a small puff of smoke in the other direction.

"Thanks, miss."

"I'm guessing you're not like them, either?" Flash asked. "Not like those possessed people?"

"Obviously not, since we came here to free you," the woman replied. There was a condescension in her response, not as if she was bothered with Flash's question but more as if she felt her actions had completely obvious intention. "I am Mother Evershade, elder of the Noctuna Covent. This village, Hollow Shades, is the home of my people, and as you can see we are in a moment of crisis. I don't know what the two of you are doing here, and I don't much care, but I must ask you to assist us given that we are all placed in jeopardy by this threat."

Gabriel was preoccupied with his smoke, so Flash continued with his line of curiosity.

"I'm here because I'm looking for someone."

"The intruder, yes," Evershade nodded. "We found her attempting to break into one of our places of worship, so she was detained."

"And she's alive?" Flash asked.

"I don't know. Our crisis began shortly after we captured her. We had no intention of harming her, but she was a stranger trespassing on our grounds. Now a greater enemy occupies the place we once held her."

"I need to link up with her," Flash said. "She's an H.S. federal agent, my mission is to get her out of here."

"Do for us first, stranger," Evershade coldly replied. "Help see our townsfolk safe, and help us take back the cathedral from our enemies. After you've proven yourself an ally, we'll let her over to you."

"Prove myself?" Flash didn't quite trust that sentiment. "What do I have to prove so far?"

"Everything, boy. We just met." Evershade shook her head in dismissal. "Please understand, the Nocturna have many, many enemies, and we are just trying to ensure our own safety."

With another puff of smoke from his lips, Gabriel gave an understanding nod. "Sure. We'll scratch your neck, and you scratch ours."

Evershade lifted an eyebrow. "And you've yet to tell us what your purpose here is, stranger. You were captured separately, came in several days prior, and speak like a Griffonian."

"You're right. I'm here tracking down a group of bad guys..." Gabriel said. "Led by a character calling herself The Platinum Knight."

Flash's eyes lit with recognition at the name, but he kept himself relaxed.

"We have a common enemy then," Evershade concluded. "Very well."

Evershade shifted her body, revealing herself to be carrying a brown duffle bag with quite a bit of heft to it.

"Most of your possessions should be in here," she said, dropping it to the ground at their feet. "We were able to locate where they stored your items."

Inside the bag, Flash found his handgun, knife, and shotgun, as well as his radio and all of the ammunition he was carrying. In short order he was rearmed, pulling his jacket back over him and adjusting it back into place after having removed it to re-equip his gear. Gabriel was doing the same, but he seemed to have far less equipment on him. He had a sling over his shoulder where he kept a sheathed hunting knife, and a drop holster on his thigh that held a handgun of his own.

"What gives?" Gabriel asked. "Was this all you found?"

"Yes. This was all we found in their storeroom," Evershade said, not an ounce of apology in her tone. "If you had anything more, they must've taken it elsewhere."

Gabriel grumbled. That seemed to be a serious concern to him for some reason, but he opted to hold his tongue for now.

"Let's not linger here any longer," Evershade continued. "The demons will notice your absence. Come along."

"MC, it's Flash. Come in."

"Flash? Thank goodness you're okay. You were radio silent for five hours!"

"Sorry, I was in a bit of a bind. I've met up with the Nocturna people and they're willing to let Agent Inkwell go if I can help them repel the monsters from their town."

"Just like that?"

"They had no idea who she was, and their demon problems began before they could talk to her. There's an agent from Griffonia investigating the area too, we're going to be working together from here."

"Right... Just be careful, Flash. Keep contact with me, okay?"

"Will do. Flash, out."

Flash followed Mother Evershade and her two witches out of the condensed shed he was being held in, with Gabriel following a ways behind them. He was keeping the last of his cigarette to himself, he said, didn't want to bother them with the smoke if he could help it.

They left the shed into an area of deep forest, with no apparent trail in any direction and very little available light overhead. Four more of the cult members waited for them outside, ones just wearing hoods rather than veils, and armed with simpler weaponry compared to the witches' elegant blades. He would learn that these people were followers of a "Sister Moon", a demon Flash was certain was the same as the one responsible for the Canterlot City Incident. There was surprisingly little malice from these people, though. Rather than an ominous and controlling organization, this genuinely seemed like a quaint little religion surrounding an older, benevolent version of a threatening figure.

The one cultist he was making conversation with, calling herself Night Glider, had found much comfort in the simple living of the community in Hollow Shades. She didn't have access to any magic, most of the cultists didn't, she was training to become a priestess, someone who could lead rituals or prayer ceremonies. Apparently finding faith was a really good thing for her. Or maybe it was just a supportive group of people surrounding her that provided most of the benefit.

"What about those witches?" Flash asked. He looked ahead to the two women leading their small group, vigilantly watching either of their flanks. "Are they unusual to be around?"

"Oh, they're fine, really. Just like anyone else, despite all the magic and battle training..." Night Glider said. "They don't talk much, though. Something about the training makes you kinda quiet."

"You don't say..." Flash looked up ahead at the witches again. He'd only ever heard them speak when giving an update on their surroundings or responding to instruction from Evershade. Even then, they hardly gave affirmative responses, they just did as they were told. Flash understood the idea of being in "battle mode", keeping yourself in a state of high focus when things were dangerous, but it just struck him as odd that a primarily religious group would train their members in such a way. It would seem being a formal witch was as much of a guardian role as it was a spiritual one.

"Well, except for one of them..." Night Glider started, "she talked a lot, but she was pretty different from the others. I think they said she was-"

"That's enough, Night Glider." Evershade turned her head back to the younger cultist with a look of disdain. "The Nocturna's inner practices shouldn't be discussed with outsiders."

"Oh, right, sorry..."

Fair enough, Flash supposed. It didn't matter too much, he was more just trying to make small talk and get comfortable around these folks. The only one that would talk to him was Night Glider, the other three regular members all seemed occupied with keeping a lookout in any given direction as they walked.

Gabriel had little more to say either. He was wary of the Nocturna, but more than willing to help their people out.

"It's just really messed up that demons and other monsters should have this much power over regular people," Gabriel said, upon Flash asking him about it. "Of course I'm willing to stick my neck out for them. It's just the old lady that I don't fully trust. Seems like she's got her own plan with all this..."

"You think so?" Flash asked. The two had moved far enough back from the others to where their quiet conversation wouldn't be overheard.

"I don't fully trust you either, pal," Gabriel continued. "But we're both soldiers, at least. Demons aside, anyone in the position this lady is in has influence over a lot of people. And people in her seat rarely ever have those people's best interests in mind."

It wasn't a completely unfounded position to have. Flash had a healthy amount of suspicion about the cult as well, but was willing to trust they were at least looking out for their own. There was something to be said about their willingness to rescue the two of them, though. Even if it was a sensible move to reassure their survival, it was a risk to come after them, a risk they didn't have to take.

Night was beginning to fall as they came back into view of the town. After crossing a bridge that passed over a river, they came back into view of a familiar gravel road. Insects buzzed and chirped around them, and the cool air dropped to a very crisp chill. They came to a small clearing where four homes stood, each one having already been abandoned during the crisis, and several possessed bodies stood milling about in the road.

"We must travel through the village, to the north is the entrance to our safehouse where survivors are hiding," Evershade said. "I'll send the witches ahead to ensure no demons are in our path. I need you two to help us clear out the possessed."

There were four of them in total visible on the road. Giving Gabriel a nod, he and Flash crept out from the treeline with their handguns raised, trying to get as close as they could to their targets. As the witches stuck to the treeline and quickly and quietly dashed ahead, Evershade and the rest of her followers stayed crouched in the brush.

Flash pressed his back against one of the house's exterior walls for cover, but he saw Gabriel brazenly rolling out into the open, taking a single handed firing position on the closest possessed villager the moment he came into view. The sudden breaking of cover surprised Flash, but he wasted little time turning his corner with pistol drawn and moving to a firing position on the first hostile that turned to approach him.

Gunshots echoed in the clearing as Flash and Gabriel both fired away, finding that all four of the possessed had been shot down as quickly as the fight started. They signaled for Evershade and the others to follow, and moved a bit further up the road. As they passed through the treeline a pair of clever possessed jumped from the shadows, bladed farming tools brandished with lethal intent, but Flash was able to quickly back himself up and catch his assailant's arm mid-swing. With an elbow strike he broke his attacker's arm and flipped him onto his back, then proceeded to drop his knife into the possessed man's chest to seal in the takedown.

The other one attacking him met Flash blade to blade, but only for a moment before Flash thrust his shoulder forward and drew his pistol back out from his under-arm holster. From there, he dropped several more rounds into the possessed villager, not stopping until the second man also fell to the ground. Gabriel was similarly dealing with threats from the other side of the road, fending off an attacker of his own as the cultists and Evershade crossed between them. They took very few shots at the targets presenting themselves, seemingly very hesitant in attacking what was once the bodies of their own.

Evershade herself had no qualms with combat, though. She stood at the front of her group, holding an elegantly made, short barreled lever action shotgun in one hand and firing readily at approaching possessed to the front. The weapon she had was made of a pitch-black metal and had some turquoise trim done in the shape of a heart on its receiver, alongside a name that Flash couldn't quite make out on the barrel.

The weapon was incredibly effective, though. Their group's momentum was maintained as one shot was enough to fully knock down any given approaching enemy, and the weapon seemed to have a bottomless magazine. Evershade flipped the gun by its lever in a stylish manner a seemingly endless number of times, each cycle giving her yet another shot to fire off.

They cleared enemy contact by the time they made it back to the village proper, but darkness was beginning to engulf them properly, and it'd soon be far more difficult to keep fighting. Across the village, several panicked townsfolk ran in fright from a group of the possessed, and the two witches that scouted ahead were guiding them towards the chapel as a defensive point. The possessed gave little issue to the witches, but as proper demons began encroaching on their territory, their skills were put to the test.

No moments were spared, Flash pushed and staggered his way through the possessed in front of him until he reached the lit doors of the chapel building. A large mob had formed around them, and by the time Evershade and the others made it through the door the threat was already right on their heels.

"We can't continue with such a force outside," Evershade said. The ordinary townsfolk all seemed to hang on her every word.

"We can't hold here forever, either," Flash said. "You need to get these people out of here! We'll cover your exit!"

Evershade disappeared into the back room, and came back with a long barrelled and scoped hunting rifle. Looking at Gabriel, she tossed it to him and gave a nod.

"There's a bell tower just outside the chapel. Climb it and use that to cover us." Evershade then turned to Flash, lifting her shotgun again. "You and I will push through the front door."

She then turned to her two witches. "And you two will guide everyone else through the back door. We'll fall back once you've made it out."

With everyone understanding the plan, Flash and Evershade exchanged prepared looks. His handgun at the ready, he kicked open the chapel's doors and swung out into the open to start taking shots at the closest of the possessed approaching him. He walked forward, keeping his gun trained and level as he moved between targets. Some of them were armed, and some weren't, but it made little difference as their coordination was poor and their attacks well telegraphed.

The winged demons that started to support the possessed proved a far greater threat, their skillful use of ordinary implements as weapons forcing Flash to think on his feet and make use of his hand to hand techniques. As one demon swung a cleaver at him, he managed to duck down and pop back into a spinning kick to the head, and following that Evershade finished it off with a shotgun blast.

Evershade herself was very proficient with her weapon, steadily moving forward and keeping her barrel alight with an endless barrage of magical buckshot in all the directions that it needed to go. After a minute or so, Flash heard the further crack of Gabriel's rifle firing down from behind them, taking another of the demons to the ground.

The battle was frantic and close, but in his mind Flash knew he had control of the situation. Even when monsters got far too close and pushed his limits, he had a shotgun of his own that he put to good use. Between himself, Evershade, and Gabriel, the chapel had a strong defense, more than capable enough to hold the line as the others were evacuated out the back door.

That confidence Flash had was suddenly shaken to its core as he heard the pronounced and rhythmic thumping of boots and clanking of plate armor amidst the gunfire and chaos of the battle.

The smallest droplet of fear made its way through his body as he looked over to see the oppressive glow of Shadow Angel walking through the thinning mob of possessed bodies and demons. It was a slow, steady walk too, they were in no hurry. When the last demon fell, the Angel drew a short-barreled shotgun of their own from behind their back, one made from dark metal and with crimson engravings along it, snapping it up to a firing position.

Flash dove for the nearest cover, a rounded stone well sticking up from the center of the village, and as the shotgun cracked off he heard the projectiles whirring through the air around him. One of the cultists behind him cried out as they ran from the back of the chapel out into the open treeline, their leg taking a hit from the shotshell and crumpling to the floor in an attempt to flee. Evershade's eyes immediately locked with the Shadow Angel, and with her own shotgun raised she returned fire.

"Begone, fallen creature!" Evershade's weapon seemed to heavily affect the Angel, staggering them back and making them almost seem to reconsider moving forward. She fired again as she ran back to help the injured cultist up. He was the last one, it would seem. The bullet struck through his calf, and he had to lean on Evershade for support as she guided him back up the road north.

Flash snapped up from his cover with this pistol raised on the Angel, shouting back to Evershade before opening fire.

"Keep going, I'll keep 'em occupied!"

The Angel was already moving around his cover, trading their shotgun for the huge sword slung across their back. In both hands it swept across at him, forcing Flash to jump back and nearly fall over. As the Angel pulled the sword back over their head, Flash brought up his pistol and lined the laser sight up with their forearms. His trigger pulled, and the magic-disrupting rounds proved enough to at least make the Angel flinch and lose the tension in their strike.

He traded his pistol for his shotgun and found that a single blast up close scattered the Angel backwards, but didn't puncture their armor. Before they could recover fully, Flash saw Gabriel sprinting across the ground from the bell tower and launching into a side kick into the Angel's helmet, spinning them off balance and firing several more pistol rounds into the demonic knight. Like Flash's rounds, the bullets merely bounced off of the Angel's sturdy infernal armor, but the impact still disrupted their focus if nothing else.

Gabriel jumped into the cover of a building as Flash continued to run about in the road below. He kept his head low as he led the Angel's attention away, acting as a distraction while Gabriel climbed to the roof of the building on the other side of the village and took shots at the Angel with his scoped rifle. The Angel flipped back around and fired their shotgun up into the rooftops, but Gabriel was already gone, and Flash was able to pop back out from his hiding spot and blast the Angel with his own shotgun. Neither of them were doing serious damage, they just needed to buy Evershade as much time to get her people to safety.

How they could be truly safe with this strong of a monster chasing them was going to be a completely different challenge to tackle.

Flash felt his shotgun go empty as the Angel again turned to him, but Gabriel jumped from his rooftop perch and caught the demon knight with another flying kick to the head. The hit put Gabriel off balance and he landed on his back, but the impact sufficiently sent the Shadow Angel into a daze. Flash took the opportunity to rush forward and grapple the demon around the neck using his shotgun as a lever, pulling hard against the gap between their helmet and collar. The demon was much larger and heavier than he was, but with the proper force around their neck Flash was able to restrain the Shadow Angel long enough for Gabriel to run up and stick his pistol down into the gap between their left shoulder pauldron and squeeze his trigger until the magazine ran dry.

"Eat lead, punk!" Gabriel kept his knee pressed into the Shadow Angel's torso for as long as he could until they lashed back against him, throwing him back to the ground with one arm, and then doing the same to Flash with a spinning motion and a flailing punch behind them.

Picking himself up, Flash saw the Angel reaching behind them for their shotgun, but their left arm twitched and seized up before they could reach it in a now visible holster. The bullets in their shoulder seemed to be an actual issue. Flash knew it was only temporary, demons normally possessed incredible healing abilities, but for the moment they had the Angel on the back foot.

Gabriel dropped the magazine from his handgun and moved to put a fresh one in, and Flash pulled the handle of his shotgun back to start his own reload process. He only had a handful of shells left, now that he knew the Angel could be temporarily wounded, he was going to save them for moments that he was right up in their face.

Assessing the threat of each of them, the Angel drew their sword with their right arm and slashed at Flash one handed, getting far more range from the swing than if they had a two handed grip. In the moment, Flash's best move was to roll to the side, but he fumbled with the shotgun shell in his hand and couldn't manage to get it into the breach in time before a second downward swing came at him. His second dodge was far more sloppy, and he ungracefully scraped along the ground to avoid getting chopped in half.

The third sword swing was interrupted by Gabriel, who again landed his shots in the perfect spot. Just like Flash he targeted the Angel's sword hand, and they faltered in their flinching and allowed for Flash to pop up and deliver a front kick directly to their chest. He dropped a single shotgun shell directly into the chamber via the side port and snapped the action forward, following his kick directly with a twelve-gauge blast at point blank range.

Again, the Angel was more inconvenienced than injured, but they seemed to back away and resasses the battle as Gabriel and Flash closed in on them. Flash had foregone reloading his shotgun and was back with his pistol out, standing across the well from Gabriel and fending off the Shadow Angel little more than a focused glare and raw confidence.

But before their battle continued, a long pointed projectile fashioned from metal and wood spun into the village and struck the Angel right in the back. Two more followed suit, but the Angel promptly spun around with their sword and sliced them out of the air to face the new threat.

From the road east of the village several more armored figures marched forward, a completely uniform thumping of boots stomping in unison growing louder in the distance. They had archaic looking iron helmets that were scratched up and tarnished with dirt and rust, only barely glistening in the moonlight, and similarly decaying armored chest plates. Each body beneath the armor was a decaying, skeletal corpse, an exposed body of flesh that was long since expired and only moving about due to some manner of magical influence.

These were soldiers, ten in total, wielding spears, swords, rounded shields, and two in the back holding crossbows. Unlike the possessed villagers, however, they moved with confidence, coordination, and poise, holding their formation as they moved in on the town.

UNDEAD LEGIONNAIRES, Ancient Guardians of Harmony: Just when this situation couldn't get any more unexpectedly bizarre, Flash found himself, Gabriel, and the Angel being closed in on by a group of undead warriors. The Angel glanced back to the two men, then to the undead in front of them, warily waiting for one of their two enemies to make a move.

The hurried and off beat clacking of horse feet in the distance quickly followed the arrival of the legionnaires, and in short order another armored warrior riding what appeared to be an undead horse leapt over the line of armed men and challenged the Angel directly. The warrior riding the horse too was a living corpse, but his helmet was far more distinguished, with a polished shine and red plumage sticking up from the top. He had far greater armor coverage as well, his shoulder and wrist guards completely intact, and his ankle plating and sandaled feet showing little signs of wear. The same couldn't be said for the flesh beneath the armor, the man's skin and muscle were peeling away and no color was left in him but a completely drained white.

Still, he moved with vigor, a golden light behind his eyes as he grimaced and swung a huge ball-and-chain weapon from the back of his equally decaying steed. The equine let out a ghastly, spine chilling whinny as its hooves smashed into the ground, and its rider's weapon whipped around with an audible crack as it lifted its stringy and mangy mane back up to the wind.

"Nightmare Moon!" The man howled, his voice both a gutteral rasp and a prideful bellow. "I have come for you!"

The Angel tensed up, lifting the sword and lining it up with what looked to be the end of a winged bell rotating around the horseman's chain, but even as the Angel perfectly blocked the weapon it exploded into a violent lightning bolt that casted a bright light throughout the entire village for a split second. The impact and the lightning blast cast the Angel onto their side, where they rolled to a controlled slide and stopped against a doorframe. When they stood, they rushed to the side to avoid another whip of the strange chained weapon.

The soldiers immediately rushed the Angel down, thrusting spears and swords in their direction and effectively pushing them back and away from the center of the village. This sudden upset from another force seemed to be enough to get the Angel to think twice, and they slowly backed their way out of the village.

The undead soldier atop the horse glared after the Angel, but as they retreated he shook his head. He held up a hand to his soldiers below. "Let the traitor go! Our orders are to secure this village!"

With varying sounds of affirmation from his men, the group turned their attention to Flash, who was now peeking over the wall of the well he'd chosen to hide behind. The horse suddenly lurched forward, hopping up and over the well to land on the other side so its rider could confront him there.

Looking up, Flash was struck with the shock of recognition, a famous visage glaring down upon him with a shortsword drawn and held low.

COMMANDER HURRICANE, Living History: This ancient warrior was one of history's most famous military leaders, one of the original founders of what would eventually become the Harmonic States. With a golden light behind his eyes and a scowl of disgust, the man cast his shortsword in the direction of Flash, demanding both respect and awe at his reanimated presence. Why he was brought back to life and had come to this place, Flash had no idea, but the ancient commander had seemingly no patience or will to explain himself.

"Surrender yourself, living man!" Despite being only a foot away, Hurricane spoke at maximum volume, his words bitter yet confident. "By the order of Daybreaker, this town is now under martial law! You will submit to the superior strategy and combat prowess of my undying All-Weather Brigade, or face dire consequences!"

Flash looked around himself in a panic, only seeing the undead brigade coming up on all sides. Where had Gabriel gone? He'd probably run off during the break in the action...

As Flash took a cautious step back, he felt only one way out of this predicament. Looking behind him, he saw the open well and the long drop down, but in the darkness there seemed to be a small flickering light only visible with the night blanketing overhead. There was something down there...

"I don't think so," Flash said. Even against one of the founders of his country, Flash found himself hesitant to put his weapons down without a fight. "This town isn't yours to take."

"I dedicated my mortal life to keeping the spread of chaos from this land..." Hurricane hissed. "Let me be damned if I allow it to happen again!"

"And what are you going to do if I just surrender to you?" Flash asked.

"The people that govern this town, the Noctura, shall be eliminated as a threat to the world, and their secrets shall be granted unto Daybreaker."

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to say no to that," Flash smirked. Hurricane's eyes widened in anger, but as he swiped his sword across Flash backflipped up to the lip of the well and raised his pistol, firing a single shot into Hurricane's helmet before allowing himself to fall backwards into the opening of the well.

With a spark of rage in his eyes, Hurricane looked furiously back at the now disappeared Flash Sentry, hearing only a distant splash from the bottom of the well below.

[Well of Shades, Beneath Hollow Shades]
[Thursday, 8:50pm]

Flash kept his body curled as he fell, and then straightened himself out as he neared the bottom of his descent. From his first encounter in the village, he knew that there was at least water down here, but what he wasn't expecting was a break at the bottom before a wide pool opened up. He splashed into the narrow but deep pool, getting completely soaked as he pulled himself up to the break in the stone shaft. It was here where the glint of light came from, there was a short cavern here with the source of light emanating from deeper within somewhere.

With his heart racing, Flash knelt and took a minute to center himself. Neither Hurricane nor his undead forces seemed willing to jump in after him, so he had a moment of reprieve before he could carry forward. However, this little town was in far deeper trouble than just demons, as it would seem that Hurricane and his men were also here to conduct war on both the Nocturna and the demons harassing them.

He followed the light through the narrow rock tunnel. It was cold and damp, but it seemed like it was dug out by hand and eventually opened up into a much larger cavern with straight shadows being cast by a strange magical light source. A completely smooth stone wall with ridges carved into it stood facing the cavern, an arched overhang and still standing pillars supporting the walls of some grand underground temple. The light itself was hung from the overhang, a magical casing firmly affixed with some kind of flameless, non-electric yellow light pointing straight down into the floor. The light came out from the rounded metal case in a wide cone, brightening up even some of the area behind it, but leaving everything missed by it in a hard shadow.

Flash looked a bit closer at the wall, the centermost slab having a horizontal split across it that was framed by a simple painting of the moon circling the sun, each celestial object being slightly inset on the wall. They each glinted with some kind of inner light, and Flash suddenly understood what he was looking at: an entrance. This wall was a door, and it required some kind of interaction to open. Given that he had no other direction to go, Flash immediately went to work figuring out what might be needed to get inside.

No apparent place for a key, just a light and a few panels. Did the light need to point somewhere? Flash reached up for the magical lamp on the ceiling and found he could rotate it around in just about any direction. The shadows spun and flitted about the cavern as Flash spun the lamp up, focusing the beam directly on the sun panel. It was on the top, so maybe it needed light? The sun lit up, and in turn the moon panel seemed to glow a bit brighter too, but this accomplished nothing. He tried the moon panel next. Only it glowed, no connection to the sun this time. Also a dead end.

Flash was starting to worry that this was one of those doors that needed a specific magical item to open up, he'd dealt with plenty of those before, but as he was swinging the point light around he noticed an inscription on one of pillars close to it. It had two sections, one written in a language he didn't recognize, and one that he did.

"Here lies the Well of Shades. It welcomes only those who have turned their back on the light."

He read the words, and then again in his head, and then a third time, squinting at them. He looked up at the light source above him. It was close enough that it was going to cast at least a little bit of light on the door no matter what, but...

With a sudden idea, Flash began to orient the light so that it was pointing away from the entrance, away from the two inset disks on the front door, and sure enough, he saw that a pitch black shadow was cast from the back of the lamp itself. This was what Flash needed, and he correctly intuited that the shadow could perfectly cover up the image of the sun, which in turn caused the inscribed moon beneath it to also cease its faint glow.

Some rumbling was felt beneath him as each of the disks upon the entrance slowly receded into the wall, and the wall itself opened to him by some machinations within the temple walls. Beyond the entrance further darkness awaited, swallowing the arcane light from the outside.

"Okay, so you're a puzzle temple, huh?" Flash stared into the long black of the entrance hallway. "I really hope there's a way out through you."

Flash turned the magical point light back towards the entrance, but it didn't offer him much reprieve. The hallway that'd seemed long before turned off in both directions fairly shortly after the entrance, leaving him with just a graying-green wall of stone to look at with dark corners beyond.

He sighed. There was only one way through this. He fished through one of his belt pouches for something, and was glad to find it relatively dry and intact. Flash clipped on a small tactical flashlight to his shoulder strap and clicked it on, and he now had his own small point light shining from his body.

As he pressed forward he'd find it was his only reprieve, as the first room of the temple was completely void of light. He moved cautiously and with his gun drawn, shining his own light around the four corners of the room to get a sense of its scale. There were more columns near the side walls, a slightly crumbled ceiling, and a set of shelves inlaid with delicate looking vases and urns.

To his surprise, there wasn't another locked door with some complicated mechanism requiring it to be opened here, just passages and rooms filled with various old-world pottery. As Flash explored, he was only filled with questions. What was this entire temple doing just sitting beneath the town? Why was it connected to the well? Did the Nocturna know of this place? They had to know. They ran this village, there was no way they couldn't know.

Eventually, up ahead, Flash saw another source of light through a doorway. He heard voices. Footsteps.

Now on alert, Flash cut his own source of light and crouched down low near the doorway. As the footsteps grew closer, Flash held very still, until a robed figure came through the doorway carrying a conventional torch. The smoke from the flame was instantly recognizable by smell, even as Flash's line of sight was blocked.

The figure passed, and Flash stepped out behind them with his weapon at the ready.

"Freeze."

"Huh? Flash?!"

The figure turned, a surprised look on her lips beneath the hood. Flash immediately lowered his weapon when he saw Night Glider staring back at him.

"How did you get down here? I thought..."

"The well in the village drops directly to an entrance to this place. Where are we?"

"This is the underground temple the Nocturna use as a safety bunker," Night Glider explained. "They've reinforced the main room and one of the passages to the surface. We're working on getting anyone left alive in the town here..."

Flash breathed a sigh of relief. "Then we're safe down here?"

Night Glider nodded. "We should be. Come with me, I'll lead you back to the others."

She led him through another bending hallway and up some stairs to an enclosed chamber, a spacious room with a few lanterns illuminating the walls and ground. Several of the townsfolk were huddled up here, blankets and bags spread out across the floorspace, and several more of the cult members were set up against the wall or leaning on one of the many stone pillars supporting the room.

Near the end of the room Flash saw an engraved stone slab set into the wall, one depicting a strange horned creature with many wings and a rather imposing face. Flames or smoke of some kind was depicted behind it, and its eyes glistened a silvery color. Some kind of superior being by the looks of it, as the walls surrounding this depiction showed people in submissive and fearful postures.

Mother Evershade stood facing the mural with an attache briefcase, just closing it up as Flash approached her.

"I see you've made it." She said, not turning to him. "Thank you for assisting us."

"You weren't going to mention the well in town was directly connected to your hideout?" Flash asked.

"I wasn't sure if it could be accessed, or if it had been completely sealed up," Evershade replied. "You seem resourceful, though. Where's your friend?"

"I thought he followed you," Flash said. "We got separated after a guest showed up."

"Likely an envoy of Daybreaker?" Mother Evershade asked. She didn't need to ask, it seemed like she somehow already knew. "Undead fellow, rides a horse, has no concept of an inside voice?"

"Yeah. And part of my national history." Flash replied. "What's this Daybreaker character about? I feel like I've heard the name before but it's not bringing anything to mind."

"Daybreaker is the sworn enemy of the Nocturna. An glorified deity to some, but we know she's just as vulnerable as our own Sister Moon," Evershade explained. "She goes by many names. 'Sister of Light', 'Platinum Knight', and 'Wrathful Sun', are ones that come to mind."

Oh. Flash recognized a few of those names. He didn't think he'd be hearing any of them again.

"Daybreaker, or someone claiming to be her, has made contact with me personally on several occasions, threatening a takeover of our town should we not submit to her and her cronies," Evershade continued. "Deity or no, she is a terrorist and a threat to innocent people. We may not have a technological edge, but our magic has proven more than enough to keep her on her toes. Until the chaos set in, at least."

"Taking advantage of the demon attack." Flash nodded, putting two and two together. "What does she want from you?"

"This." Evershade raised the attache case she carried. "Inside is a piece of a relic that once belonged to Sister Moon. Daybreaker wants its power to bolster her own."

This confused Flash, as his understanding of this 'Daybreaker' character was far more benevolent until now. The 'Sister of Light' was a celebrated saviour figure, but these Nocturna folks seemed to have a different perspective.

"What does Daybreaker want with this place?" Flash asked.

"She claims she is here to cleanse this place of chaos and evil," Evershade replied, "And I have no doubt she intends to do so. However, her methods are dangerous, and I'm certain she has motives apart from protecting the world."

"Like what?"

Evershade looked troubled at the notion of the question. "I don't know. But to her, we just are just as deserving of erasing as the demons invading us."

"Speaking of, Hurricane and his forces are going to be searching for this place," Flash said.

"Which is why my bodyguards and I will be moving to recapture our Cathedral," Evershade said. "The undead one paid us a visit earlier today, and alongside a machine dragon we were overrun."

"Machine dragon?" Flash asked.

"More remnants of the ancient world. Daybreaker draws on long forgotten history for her allies," Evershade shook her head. "I have my strongest witches searching north of here for any other survivors. We need to make our way back to the village, take it back first, and use it as a foothold to push back into the cathedral grounds."

It seemed like a sound plan, but he was concerned at the state of their forces.

"Can your people fight?" Flash looked around. The cultists were the ones with the most firepower, but they looked the most worn out, and while their witches seemed quite capable with swords and magic, they were few and far between.

"With coordination and leadership, yes," Evershade said. "Take no more than an hour to rest and collect yourself. We need to act quickly, but we should also ensure we're ready."

An hour was more than enough time for a breather. Flash had a long night ahead of him.