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The sun had set five hours ago on Monster Town, the great gates closed and the watchmen sat in the gatehouse, leaning against their spears and slipping in a sly game of cards. The street had the odd crossing but bar that the silence of night had rested her cloak down to sleep. The great hall remained lit, fires crackling in braziers outside the dark wooden gate. Passing through the central chamber, to a small room just off from the storeroom, Jack drummed his metal fingers against the table.
He was thinking, head resting upon his other hand as the other drummed a pensive tattoo. He didn't like this new discovery, especially where Ancients were concerned. It was a grey neighbourhood he didn't fancy revisiting. The beams creaked above him, attention disregarding the passive grumbling of the building.
The mayor hadn't been overly concerned about the news from the capital, but Jack had decided to add a couple of extra patrols to his route whenever he was in the field. His core flickered, the small candle waxing and waning with his phantom breath. He didn't need to breathe, it was more a habit Szabo had fallen into to make his human companions less disconcerted. His spindly fingers uncurled, drawing his rifle from the fathomless folds of his cloak to point it skywards,
"Taab."
Above him hung the silhouette of the killer bat, knives clasped in both claws. She turned her gaze down, firelight flickering off of a wide grin,
"Jack of the Lantern."
He placed his rifle on the table, Taab dropping to sink her knives into the wood.
"Really?" Jack quirked the impression of an eyebrow.
Taab shrugged as she sat opposite him, wings folding like a dark cloak, "What do you want?"
"I wanna ask about this Cube you found," Jack's usual springy demeanour was uncomfortably quiet, "an' the Ancients you discovered."
"All dead." She folded her arms, "No Ancient survived, the only things we do have are video logs-"
"An' a genetic experiment." He cut in, fingers drumming harder against the table.
"Quit your posturing," Taab waved a hand, "it's just a girl, well, a woman."
"Szabo has memories of such things," Jack frowned, "they rarely went well."
"Trust me," she leant across the table, "I've got this under control."
His eyes locked with hers, "An' if you ain't?"
The tension quivered on a knife's edge, fur bristling under the muted whirring of gears and pistons.
"So Szabo has memories of the Ancients?" Taab leant back in her chair.
"Fragments," Jack let this one slide, for now, "a lot has been censored and tryin' to extract it could be dangerous, so don't try anything."
"I won't if you won't." Her eyes flashed, "Cos I'd be the first to know if his, if your loyalties began wavering at the whiff of the Ancients."
"You think I'm so unreliable?" He scoffed, gears revving up, "We both know what our wielders suffered, even if I wasn't there."
Taab massaged her brow, teeth baring in a flash of grim nostalgia, "Dredging up the past is not a savoury idea."
Jack grimaced, leaning his head in his hand, "Agreed. I trust your loyalties and I hope you can trust mine."
Taab cracked open one weary scarlet eye, "Agreed."
The room fell silent, nothing but the clicking of cogs and the foggy weight of painful memories.
"How is Monster Town faring?" Taab broke the silence.
Jack drummed his fingers again, phantom gaze turning skywards as he sifted his thoughts, "Pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Mayor Poopie's doin' a great job helpin' out all sorts a guys who come here for shelter. We're kinda hopin' to expand a bit come the spring, but we've gotta chat with Jibral so people don't freak out."
"Good to hear." A small smirk tickled Taab's mouth, "Y'know I'm pretty proud of the monster folk setting up a lil' town."
"Tell me about it. If anything happened to 'em," Jack leant over the table with a discerning finger, jagged mouth twisting into a smile, "I'd rain down hell onto whoever did it."
Taab threw her head back in a bellowing laugh, "That's the fire I like to see. How's the patrols?"
"Easy." He leant back in his chair, "just the odd wild monster, easy to send 'em packin'."
"And Maharajah?"
"Uppity." He rolled his wrist, "Poopie's the mayor, not the bloody king. Meetings are long 'n dull but we get there eventually."
Taab chuckled under her breath and let the silence hang for a moment, preparing itself for the question to follow,
"Have you, or Szabo, ever heard of Doctor Lazuli Bishop?"
Jack paused. Bar the candle flickering, one would suppose he had shut down.
"It's familiar," he finally spoke, "I can't get anything else this far away, but something about that name... it's ticklin' a part of my circuits."
"And the Draco Animam project?" Taab watched Jack's eyes, the glowing triangles betraying nothing.
"Nah, nothin' of that in there." He shrugged, "But like I said, I'd have to check in with Szabo."
She nodded, "I see. Dr Bishop was included in a video log we found at the Cube."
Jack watched, attention fixed upon her. Taab continued,
"She's dead, but she mentioned this project which was the source of Bianca."
"Who?"
"The dragon girl, you gourd!" She rapped a knuckle against his head, "There were four or five other dragon hybrids with her, but unfortunately they were dead."
"Unfortunately?" Jack quirked an eyebrow, earning him a sneer from Taab,
"Yes, unfortunately. Those were people-"
"They were dragons," the chair scraped back as he leant over the table towards her, "who, might I remind you, are the top of the food chain."
Taab snorted, "Sit down, we've bested five dragons before now, they ain't all that."
"To you! I've got a town to protect." Jack's eyes narrowed, the glow sinking to crimson, "It's not just my life I'm thinkin' about, one I ain't takin' for granted either."
"And you think I am?" It was Taab's turn to lurch from her seat, "I've earned my freedom, and I'm gonna keep it, no matter what."
"Same, an' I'm gonna protect my home, no matter what."
A silver blade glinted in Taab's hand, "Don't make me kill you again."
"Better make it count this time," Jack gripped a golden revolver in his own, "better finish me off."
She drew another blade, and another gun rose to counter it.
The knife was lowered, replaced by a slender sword.
Another arm rose, with another revolver.
The second knife became another sword, countered by a fourth arm with yet another revolver.
Taab bit back a snigger, fighting for her composure at the almost comical display. Finally, she lowered both blades, "We're both better than this. We should be angry at Nene, not each other."
Jack slowly lowered his arms, folding them into his cloak, "Agreed. We've both got the same goal; you wanna protect your family, I wanna protect my town. I'll trust this Bianca if you trust Szabo."
"Done." Taab gave his hand a firm shake, "I might need you in the future; the mecha base to the north is active again and we've gotta shut it off."
"Depends," he settled back into his chair, "I've gotta watch the town and the next best thing is still training."
"And who's that?" Taab couldn't recall any other Shadow users in Monster Town bar Szabo and Poopie.
"It's this Kelolon called Ami. They... she? Turned up recently and she's pretty... fierce."
"She's a frog thing." Taab quirked an eyebrow, unconvinced.
"Yeah, a frog thing that fleeced Szabo in poker." Jack's shoulders rattled with laughter.
"Seriously?" Even Taab couldn't resist a smirk, "what's the Shadow?"
"Moody dragon."
Her memories flashed to the underground river, to the unexpected appearance of a dragon swooping in with an echoing roar and a mouth of jagged teeth.
"Weird. Kelolon usually hunt in numbers." She picked at a splinter in the table.
"Yeah, but she's formidable. I'd trust her more if she wasn't quite so..."
"Angry?"
"Volatile, and angry." He smirked, "She's like a real mad lil' dog."
Taab let out a hearty cackle, "Sounds like my kind of person. M'kay, I'll ask Kirin or Sabre." She rose from her seat with a sigh, "Kay, that's all I've got for now. Let me know if you recall anything about Dr Bishop or anything relating to the Draco Animam project."
"And the Morning Star?"
It had completely slipped her mind, getting Jack on the same page had been such a priority that she'd somehow forgotten mentioning them. How embarrassing.
"Oh yeah, them. Keep an ear out, but I kinda doubt you'd hear anything from Monster Town."
Jack rose from his chair, cerulean cloak fading to deep shadow, "I might on patrol, I'll let you know what I see on the roads."
"Good, thanks, Jack." She offered a claw, which he gave a firm shake.
"Always a pleasure." He gave a wry smile, a tension that Taab reciprocated. The constant fluctuations kept it exciting at least, and both silently agreed they enjoyed the friction as a welcome challenge.
Jack bounced his rifle onto his shoulder, turning to the wall with a jaunty whistle as he melted into the wood and vanished, casting her one last wave.
Taab didn't even need to move, fading into the darkness as easily as casting a curtain over herself, sinking effortlessly into the embrace of the night.