Roxie wakes up and slowly rolls out of her cot, dragging the sheet with her as she falls onto her pack.

She quietly moans “Owe”

Then slowly rolls further across the floor, stops to finish pulling her leather breastplate off and her helmet with it, though leaves her gauntlets and trousers on. She spends a minuet to push out the new dent before opening her pack and retrieving her spell book. She slowly wonders out of the small bunkroom and into main room where Two is currently looking over documents at a sitting table. She sits, still covered in her sheets, and starts writing spells.

“That thing is still patrolling by the way” Two idly mentions to Roxie as they flips through the papers.

She slowly blinks “Is it still damaged?”

“Nope, some woman with a plant on her back turned up and touched them, then the dent popped out” They continue shuffling through the papers, though places one out on the table.

Roxie admits “That’s good to hear—” Then answers Two’s odd look “He doesn’t heal on his own”

“Ooooo” They nod in understanding.

Roxie then drearily looks around the room and asks, “Where’s the other two?”

“They’re manning the lookouts, keeping an eye on out pursuer” They then return to their papers. After a couple minuets, Roxie tuts and Two asks “Want some help?”

“I want some coffee—” She tiredly chuckles to herself as she admits this “Or someone to review this after I’m done. It’s my first time writing a proper spell”

They nod and put down their papers “What elements are you focusing on?”

“I plan to use air and earth” She lists these as she stops her current page to start another.

Two leans over the table and pulls the forgotten page closer “Going into fire afterwards?”

“Yep” She responds as she starts writing out a legend; it consists of various sub spells that are extensively used in other, bigger spells, that are then associated with a symbol.

“Good choice. Yeah, I can review them after you’re done, and I’ll ask Roach if they’ve got any beginner spells next time we meet” They put the page back into place and returns to shifting through papers.

Roxie stops and looks up and smiles “Oh, thanks”

“It’s fine” They give a dismissive wave “And sorry about not having coffee available. We have to minimise the amount of mana powered stuff here, and no place for a fire”

“Don’t have to apologize, I’m ok. Just never been that good with mornings” She sighs before returning to writing.

Two then springs up to his feet, already wielding a small hatchet and a tube.

“Sit down, it’s just me” She idly waves them down “My sight takes a little bit to kick in in the morning”

“The felt so weir—” They pause for a moment before quickly asking “Could they have felt it?”

Roxie looks up to him and slowly blinks before getting up and grumbling “Fucking, fates, crap, crap”

She rushes into the bunkroom and pulls her armour on before she grabs her green blade and storming out. She pauses at the entrance out as Two waits behind her “I’ll be here to close the hatch after you”

She pauses at the entrance and focuses her sight out before swiftly exiting, leaving the dozen bricks that formed the hatch to Two. She goes to run but dodges to the side as a spike pierces into the ground, not looking back to the armoured angel that throws out a hand and launches more. She leaps up with a beat of her wings and drags herself onto the roof, batting the spikes away with her tail as she goes. She starts sprinting across the rooftops, leaping over the gaps as the figure floats after her. She stops herself with her claws and reverses her sprint whilst ducking under a spike that returns to the angel, then under it to swing her sword across his back as she goes; the blade of her sword explodes as a thick cloud mana is pulled into it that melts a hole in their back, revealing that their insides contain a large sword with the handle folded down, whilst shattering a section of a thick cable of mana that goes from him to a nearby section of the city.

Roxie twirls at the explosion kicks her arm back, then when she stops her face splits with a grin as she picks herself up and follows the now visible trail of mana. She aligns herself towards the other end of the cable whilst the angel falls to his feet as the cable and his back slowly repairs.

Roxie kicks off rooftops and beats her wings to rapidly traverse the city until she goes soaring over an alleyway between terraced two story homes, above a trio of figures; a pair of angels each carrying a terrarium of moss on their backs and several rings across their torso, also with a myriad of tubes riddling their bodies, and another armoured one that has light blue tassels hanging off their head. The armoured one is wielding a large bearded axe which they have already reared back to swing at Roxie. She falls right into their swing but catches the edges of the rooftops with her wings and pulls herself up to avoid the axe that demolishes one side of the alleyway. The rooftop collapses, dropping her onto the bricks below at their feet as the pair scurry away whilst the armoured one brings the axe back around, flinging bricks and dust with it; Roxie stops picking herself up and lies flat on the ground to avoid the axe that then gouges out a long line of bricks from the building opposite before pushing herself up and sprinting past, following the fleeing pair of angels.

The armoured angel shouts at Roxie “Don’t bloody run!” As they charge after her.

The pair turn around and hold out their hands as the walls of the alleyway shift and come together to block her; unable to use her wings due to the alleyway’s small size she charges her legs with chi and leaps at the wall, only managing to catch the top of it but quickly scrambles over with the help of her claws as the armoured angel barrels towards it. A pair of spikes launches out of its sides and anchors into the ground, the connection of mana becoming visibly strained as its momentum is stopped before it floats after Roxie as she climbs onto the rooftop. She throws the handle of her sword at them which they try an avoid, but it still contacts with their shoulder and explodes, though less violently and only melting a small hole through their armour which reveals their hollow insides. They drop and crash into the ground as they clutch at the hole, leaving Roxie free to pursue the pair who are already running away. She leaps off the edge after the pair whilst lifting up her wing and arm to block a metal spike that pierces through her webbing and digs into her armour that she just manages to charge with chi, sending her skidding down the alleyway and past the offshoot that the pair flee down.

She yanks the spike out of her arm, careful not to tear her webbing, as she gets up whilst shaking that arm as the axe wielding angel is joined by the previous one, now wielding the large sword. The pair rush towards her, the gold one floating whilst the blue one runs. Roxie backs up a couple buildings and barges through the back door of a shop, entering its raided storeroom and stopping as the pair smashes in behind her. The blue one steps forwards and makes an overhead swing with their weapon, demolishing the second storey’s supports and floor as it goes whilst stepping forwards to try and catch Roxie who jumps backwards to avoid the swing. The gold one floats forwards and swings their weapons as the blue angel finishes their attack, cutting through a group of open boxes as it keeps their weapon low whilst floating with the swing; Roxie avoids it by jumping over the sword, then pulls herself back with mana from her wings to avoid the blue angel’s upwards swing as they pursue. She then continues skipping backwards before barging back out of the shop through the front door. She’s greeted by Jack who pulls her to the side as the pair of armoured angels filter out behind her.

Gold floats forwards and swings with his sword, again following the swing; Jack parries the attack, touching the flat of its sword and sending a pulse of spirit to push it over his head whilst delivering a palm strike to Gold’s chest, pushing him a few feet back as Blue follows with his own attack, swinging for Jack’s legs. He stomps the axe head into the ground whilst striking him, forcing him back a few feet as his axe breaks up the brick.

The pair step back and stand off with Jack, who raises an open hand towards them. The pair then snap around to look behind them before sprinting down the road only to trip or fall to their knees. Roxie and Jack approach then lean back as Blue wildly swings at them, the weight of his weapon sending him flying into the front of the shop. Jack and Roxie watch as they laboriously pull themselves out and seize halfway, Gold also seizes in few moments after in a more dignified pose, with them on one knee and their weapon raised.

Roxie approaches but is stopped by Jack who turns her around and grabs her by the shoulders “What the fuck did you think you were doing?”

“Uh, distraction? Because the gold one was right on top of the entrance to the hideout” She tilts her head and frowns.

“Ok. Fine—” Jack lightly shakes her “But why didn’t you call of me and Frank”

“Oh, so, Two didn’t call for you two?” She gently pushes his hands off of her “I understand that from your perspective I’m just a cub. But I’m very well trained. And capable—” She raise a finger and asks him to “Observe”

She strides up to Gold and looks down at them for a long moment as she pushes her sight through it before removing the tassels and pushing her mana into their head. She grits her teeth as it tries to pull it from her, but she manipulates the latch inside and pulls back before it gets a proper hold. Unceremoniously flipping the top its head open with a flick of her finger, she then plucks out the large, brass and gemstone brain inside.

“Behold. Something” She looks the brain up and down “I think it’s where its soul is?”

She looks back at the body and lightly pushes it over into its back with her tail before handing the brain over to Jack and placing her hands on either side of its chest. She pulls it open to reveal a large empty cavity save for a thick metal spine, empty holders and several lose disks of whetstone, each with a gemstone in the middle and a tubbed spiral around that. She picks one up and feeds some mana into it, then yelps as air pushes out of the spiral and the disk goes spinning out of her hand. As she continue to search through the body, Frank and Two drag the other pair of angels over and approach Jack as he pokes over the brain.

He holds it up to the pair and shrugs.

Two turns to Roxie as she sets to opening Blue, then asks Jack “Did you have much issue fighting them?”

He nods to cracked open body of Gold “Well, they don’t have organs, so I’m not of much use against them”

“Frank, do you think you’ve got any chance? Frank?” Two waves a hand in front of his face to get his attention.

He snaps back into the conversation and stops staring at the brain “Huh? probably not—” He looks down to the pair of un-armoured angels “Unless we think up a regular way of finding these ones”

“We’re gonna need a proper mage for that. I hit one in the back and didn’t feel the connection that Roxie lit up” Jack holds his hands behind his back and straightens his posture.

“And we don’t have enough orichalcum to repeat what she did” Two scratches their head and sighs before stating “I’m gonna tell the others what we figured out here and to keep an eye out on for these—” He gestures to the pair on the ground.

Frank quietly says “Their handlers”

Two looks at Frank for a second before shrugging and admitting “That’ll do for a name, better than two-point o’s”

Roxie joins the group to hand over the second brain before returning to Blue and pulling the axe head off the axe, having to use chi in her legs to lift it up. Giving up on the head, she takes the long handle that still has plenty of weight to it and folds onto itself, before skipping back and offering the tassels and whetstones “Any of you lot want one of these?” Jack take one of the gold tassel and pockets it whilst Frank tentatively takes a whetstone and Two takes the rest of them “So, what’s next? Finding a proper mage?”

“Yep, which means getting our people back” Two rubs his face “Lets grab our stuff and move safe house”