Cloudy Sky: The Unlucky Thirteen

15 - Corrupted

Leleithan weather is cold, but not too cold during mid-Seventh. That's good. I shudder to think of Twelfth or First or even Second and Third.

"That's a win, lazy pig!" I announce, pumping a fist into the air. Taurus rises and suddenly shoves me backwards into a tree. Okay, I didn't expect that, and I hit the tree with a thud. Not fair. We don't play sneaky.

Next to me, two more Hell Zoners are dueling. Scorpio pins Aquaria against a tree, but she slips away from his grip instantly and whips a hand up, claws bared. Fluidly, Scorpio ducks and seizes her around the waist, bringing her to the ground with him. The Deadpool slides free of his grip quickly, almost as if she's liquid, about to stand up, when Scorpio lashes out a leg and traps her on the ground.

She glares, frustrated as he leans close to her face and smirks, "That would be a win, honey."

Aviva stands at the edge of a clearing and nods. "Final Hell Zoners, Taurus Wilde and Scorpio Darktale. Final Firefly Chasers are Pisces Shard and Nia Airia. Final Alpha Squad is Caprice Deadpool and Ari Wildfire."

The Awesome Squad changed their name to Firefly Chasers. Leilani kind of threatened Gemi's life if they didn't, so they had no choice. I don't think Leilani would kill Gemi, though. It's kind of obvious.

Taurus and Scorpio face off in the center. Taurus is used to fighting me. We don't sneak around, we just try to beat the wits out of each other. Scorpio and Aquaria try to strangle each other.

Scorpio dodges Taurus's shots and Taurus has the close-range advantage. Taurus wins when he flips Scorpio over his shoulder onto Scorpio's back.

Caprice fakes falling to her knees and as Ari becomes concerned she shoots a fist up — he dodges, but Caprice springs to her feet and knocks him onto the ground. Fair is fair.

Fluidly, Pisces dodges each of Nia's shots, darting backwards and around her, which is dizzying her. Then he sticks out a leg quickly. She doesn't see it and trips over it. I'm actually shocked Pisces has lasted so long.

"Good job, guys. Lunch and we'll continue training," Aviva says, the ghost of a smile hovering at her lips.

Taurus

Not way better than Galaxian mashed potato, but still. Leleithan food isn't too bad, surprising for a wrecked world. We've only been here a day or so, living scattered in spare storage rooms while three bigger rooms are being cleared for living in. I'm sharing a room with Vienna and Caprice at the moment, which isn't too bad.

I'm sore all over from when Leo threw me three times, from when Caprice kicked me straight in the stomach — yep, she's feral — and from when Scorpio strangled me. I have plenty of ugly scratches from Aquaria's claws.

Lesson learned. Don't fight the Hell Zoners, but it's kinda too late for that, isn't it.

I sit down at one of the foldable tables with Nia, Leilani, Caprice, and Pisces.

Nia pops her spoon into her mouth and picks up a field report, muttering something unintelligible through it.

"Pardon?" Leilani inquires, stabbing her fork into her food. We're about to learn our ancestry after lunch, before Shadowly supervises the semifinals and finals. We have to fight each other a lot.

"Antares did a lot of stuff. His field reports are hella detailed. As far as I can see he's the logical one and Miasma's the one with bloodlust."

"You sure it's just that Miasma misses her partner?" speculates Pisces as he mixes his food into a paste with his fork.

"Nope," Caprice pops the p with a knowledgeable smile. "Living with the Holy Shipper will get you somewhere. She likes him way too much, but can we please stop on this subject? I don't like it."

"Sure you don't, Soulless One," Leilani teases. "We never could tell."

I snort and Nia laughs around a mouthful of food, spitting some out.

Pisces shakes his head. "Now I wish I was at Leo's table."

Leo is holding court over Sagittaria, Ari, Carina, and Scorpio, none of whom are particularly interested in him. Not one little bit. Carina is telling Scorpio off, again.

"I don't blame you," I say, glaring at a chunk of salad that has Nia's spittle on it before flipping her off.

—

Caprice grumbles about missing her beloved horror movies as we head to the ancestry thing. I'm expecting to be told I'm full human. There'll be nothing special about me ... yes, I'm aware that being special comes with a price. Plenty of demonborn have been killed. Same with, for example, sirens. Nothing good can come of them, I'm always told. They're a pest. I mean, the current siren Queens are doing well enough and sirens haven't killed any more than star spirits have. Not that I know too much about the supernatural races. Just what I bothered to hear during history.

As Sagittaria and Carina pass us by, squabbling the whole way, Caprice pulls me aside into a shadowed nook in the wall and whispers in my ear, tripping over her words. "Just one quick thing. I'd like at least someone to know that I'm not an emotionless psychopath. Do you believe me?"

—

I get to find out that I'm part satyr and that Ari is pure demonborn, which is not a surprise. Pisces is part kelpie, one of the rarest races. How did I ever think he was innocent?

Vienna and Leilani are part siren and Leo's part incubus. How did so many powerful Ethereals get in one place?

"And then there's the Corrupted. The first Corrupted are immortal, so they're still living. They created the Seven Worlds and the Pocket that contains them. And of course, they just have to be evil. They were banished to outside the Pocket ... but some have gotten back in, mostly concentrating in the First World. Who the hell knows what they're planning, but it's not good. And well, to use a cliche movie line—"

Spectra bursts in suddenly. "Paradise and Paranoia are attacking Leleith, the Poisoned Grove! They have Trackers with them and a few Corrupted!"

Aviva's face blanches. "They know the thirteen are here! How fast are they moving?"

"Damn fast," Spectra says. "They'll breach the barrier in no time."

Aviva's face goes stone cold. "If Isis hasn't issued orders yet, tell Solstice not to come out of cover yet. And you thirteen ... let's see how you handle a real fight."

Ooh! Also look out for those new aesthetics, Carina and Caprice's are done and in my opinion they're looking pretty. And I'm working on aesthetics for Miasma and Antares. And I swear Paradise and Paranoia are not their real names, it's just their code names.

Also if you may notice, there'll be three rooms open and there are three groups-- I'll stop now.