Then she lunges, swords piercing him chest near the gap made for his wheel. She shudders, a mixture of blood and oil splattering on the floor as she withdraws her blades. As he falls, purple and red mist rises from our bodies and dissipates into the air around us.
I think that's it.
Okay, then. It's all over bar the
shouting.
I relax slightly from my crouch, a sign Queen Marlena picks up on immediately, striding through the broken door to-.
Oh. To a… Child's nursery, now somewhat damages. The ring lights up immediately, tendrils reaching out to right the crib, mend the dresser and remove the tears from the carpet. I… Guess that this is where the kidnapping happened, then.
Ah, Orange Rings. So good at clean-up duty... Which Lantern is probably going to be on for
some time after all this.
"Thank you, Teela. And who are..?"
Queen Marlena's eyes widen as she gets a clear look at Adora's face. She doesn't look the same as her father or her mother or her brother, but even beyond the hair and eyes there are features she clearly shares with them.
Heh, in the Filmation series, every human was
basically furnished with either the high-cheeked female face, or the chiseled male face.
So anything better than
that is an improvement.
"You..?"
Adora for her part is trying to look at Queen Marlena, but her eyes are constantly jerking to some point of interest in the room she was taken from. Does she actually remember, or did Orko's spell actually shake something loose? Or is she just-? Unused to a room for children this different form the whelping chambers of Etheria and unused to duplicity.
No doubt remembering some very amusing or
embarrassing moments from her freshly-remembered childhood...
Okay, how do I work out-?
The world glows orange as my point of view suddenly changes, and I see that Adora just lunged at the place where I was. Why-what-?
Oh, yeah, combat dodge program is still running. Good thing you didn't shut that down, huh?
Construct shield and traverse towards the queen in case-.
Adora's eyes widen! "Mother, watch out!"
And 'screech' goes the music and everyone's train of thought.
Especially Teela's! She's still
completely clueless about the backstory, after all.
She throws herself at me again, swords slamming rhythmically into my construct as she tries to punch her way through!
"He works for Skeletor!"
...Oh, right.
That.
"What? A-ador-?" Queen Marlena looks somewhat bewildered, and I-.
She knows. She's been playing along. That wasn't a 'I distantly remember this person', that was a 'this is my mother' reaction. And while I don't think she's strong enough to put a regular sword through my shield, I don't want to find out that she can draw on the Power of Grayskull under extreme stress without her Sword of Power.
I mean, I'm sure you've got a self-healing program handy, but better to not
need to run it...
"You work for Hordak."
"That was before I remembered-." Her eyes go to her mother again, before she forces herself to keep her eyes on me. "My memories started coming back. Shadow Weaver did something to my memories, but coming here-. I started to remember again. You told me that you serve Skeletor!"
Hoo-boy. Talk about a gambit pile-up.
"I told Despara, Force Captain of Hordak, that I work for Skeletor."
She pulls her swords back a little. "We have been lying to each other?"
Ah, light dawns over marble-head.
"I'm afraid that it looks like that."
"Who are you?"
"Orange Lantern. Member of the Masters of the Universe… At least, until Sir Duncan gets here."
Yeah, once
he finishes kicking your ass for all this, you're going to
need that self-healing program...
"Evil-Lyn?"
"Used to work for Skeletor, is currently on probation. I-I think-" I raise my right hand and point to the shocked Queen Marlena. "-that the Queen wants your att-."
Ooh, clever. Deflect her attention.
While you flee for the hills.
Queen Marlena grabs her daughter, swords awkwardly forced out to the side. Adora appears to not know what to do. She either can't or doesn't want to move her arms to sheathe her swords. But she doesn't appear to be trying to hug back. But this is clearly a highly emotional moment for both of them so I move to step out of the ro-.
Ah, hello Teela's staff.
"I'll be having an
explanation now,
please."
"Now Orko's spell has stopped working, I want an-."
"Marlena?" King Randor enters the room, right hand on the hilt of his sword. "I heard-."
Ah, the king arrives. Presumably busy with logistics for the celebrations, I guess.
He stares at the sword-bearing young woman his wife is embracing.
"Who is this?"
And they still have
Adam to give the run-down to, too... It's going to be a
busy night.
I gently nudge Teela's staff aside as I perform a shallow bow. "Princess Adora, your majesty. Teela and I will leave you to reacquaint yourselves."
"A-?" He blinks, then his eyes widen as he takes her in. "Dor… A?"
And no doubt their eyes are getting a little
moist...
I attach a strand of orange to Tella and then transition us out of the room.
Teela scowls. "Warn me before you do that."
Hey, at least all your bits are still where they should be... I
hope.
"Sorry. And… Sorry about this whole thing. I'm pretty sure that I've made a series of sub-par decisions-."
"I'm glad that you recognise that." I clench as Sir Duncan strolls down the corridor towards us, Teela Na close at hand. "But right now I'm most concerned about Evil-Lyn."
Bussssted. Hmm... Have Teela the
elder and Teela the
younger met yet? There's an interesting conversation to imagine...
"I'll deal with that right away, sir, and recluse myself to the castle until tomorrow."
Sir Duncan thinks for a moment. "You should take someone with you, just in case. I know Adam doesn't have a date-"
...He's a little busy trying to work out what just
happened, I suspect. And probably looking for somewhere
private to power down...
Teela and I share a cringe.
"-so-." He notices our response, then looks uncertain. "Did he find a date?"
I don't know... Did the Queen ever mention 'Star Wars' to you? This is definitely a
Skywalker situation...
"He was-. He was flirting with Adora without knowing who she was." Sir Duncan winces. "And I think… After a certain point, you sort of have to trust people. I don't think that.. coming back mob-handed is.. going to help her recovery."
He nods slowly. "That's taking a risk, but alright. Send a message to the Sorceress when you find out what she's been doing. And I'll expect a full debrief from you tomorrow."
While Duncan tries to calm down again. I rather suspect the nice mood he was getting into has been
ruined, though...
"Thank you, sir. Excuse me."
The world shudders, and I'm in front of Castle Grayskull. Whose drawbridge is down. Okay..? I walk forward, looking around just in case-. Something triggers the moment I cross the threshold, and-.
Now, what's Evelyn been up to, I wonder...
And an instant later the Sorcerer's staff appears in front of me. Taking hold of it, I feel it as I reconnect to the Power of Grayskull, and focus to dispatch a impression of success and safety to Teela Na.
"Surprised?"
Huh. Well, I guess the Sorceress gets to finish her night off. Get back to destroying Duncan's bed, among
other things...
Evelyn is still carrying her own staff, but makes no aggressive move towards me as the Castle finishes connecting to me.
"No. Pleased, certainly."
Very glad she isn't being all super-villain about this, huh?
"Oh? Did you bring no one with you?"
"No."
I bet she was looking forwards to some
monologuing.
"I think I should be insulted. I had a speech prepared, on the subject of how foolish I would have to be to throw away this opportunity. And now I won't get to give it."
I shrug as I walk past her into the Castle.
"You can give it to me, if you like. And tell me what you've learned about the Sword of Power."
...Probably found out it's actually not called the Sword of
Power.
