ASH: Shadow Girls #13: Breakdown (Forging the Sword Part 1)

[Dave Van Domelen]

     [The cover focuses on Black Opal II removing her featureless 
      black helmet to reveal a featureless black face underneath
      as the Morning Stars look on in concern and horror.]

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 .|, COHERENT COMICS PRESENTS             An ASH Universe Story
--+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 '|`   SHADOW GIRLS      #13 - Breakdown (Forging the Sword Part 1)
			 copyright 2024 by Dave Van Domelen
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	  		    The Morning Stars

     Tetra-Red		 Xueli "Julie" Li - The Leader
     Hexa-Blue		 Tamica "Tammy" Sullivan - The Brains
     Octa-Green		 Dhriti "Tee" Singh - The Fighter
     Dodeca-Yellow	 Jessica "Jess" Davies - The Scout  
     Icosa-Pink		 Olivia "Liv" Stuart - The Heart
     Black Opal II    	 Madelyn "Maddie" Chin - The Mentor

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[July 5, 2027 - Plato's Cave]

     A sort of dry pain filled every millimeter of Maddie's body as she swam
up out of dark dreams, like the worst allergy headache she'd ever had but
spread out over everything, like grit in her joints and sand under her skin.
Memories started to return, and she reached up to touch her sternum.
     Warm, smooth metal, flush to her skin at the edges.  Geometric
depressions spaced evenly across it.
     "She's awake!" someone said.  Julie?  There was a crackling sussuration
in her ears, like static, but the voice came through clearly anyway.
     She decided to dare opening her eyes, then immediately regretted it as
she was stunned by five pillars of colored flame...or at least that's what
they looked like.
     She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed them.  "Everything...hurts..." she
managed to mutter.
     Maddie tried opening her eyes just a crack...still too bright, but the
girls had more of a blurry glow around them than a roaring arc flare now.
"Still too bright.  Worst hangover ever...."
     "Bright?  But we're all covered in shadows?" Julie again, she was pretty
sure, said.
     "The integration of the pectoral may have had effects beyond the
obviously visible cosmetic ones," Tammy replied.  "We could all feel when she
put it on, she may be able to 'see' our power now?  It's a hypothesis worth
testing," she shrugged, and suddenly the blue glow faded to a faint tinge.
Tammy had clearly been watching for whatever Maddie's reaction was, because
she added, "Everyone power down."
     Within moments, the room lighting was back to normal, and most of that
sandy, ashy feeling under Maddie's skin had gone away as well.  With the
overwhelming sensory input from the girls' power tamped down, Maddie could
feel her remaining aches more clearly, mostly a headache and a burnt
sensation from her chest.  The chest was obvious, as she looked down and saw
the pectoral had indeed fused flush with her skin, the chain having fallen
off at some point in the process.  Her head...some of that was power
hangover, but a tenderness on the back of her skull suggested that at some
point she'd fallen over and hit her head on something hard.  Desk, floor,
didn't make much difference.  She'd waken up, so it wasn't fatal, and until
she could be sure she could hide the pectoral a doctor was out of the
question anyway.  Maybe Jessa had someone discreet.
     "Good, you'll live," a very annoyed-looking Jess said.  "Now what the
hell did you do, and why shouldn't I kick your ass over it?  I was halfway
through making a jump and nearly took a dive off a twelve story building."
     Maddie levered herself up, wincing at the tenderness in her chest.
"You'd all gone over the edge.  The gems were making you crazy, and at least
a couple of you were a heartbeat away from rushing back into battle to get
killed."
     "And what does...that," Tee gestured at Maddie's chest, "have to do with
any of it?"
     "Unlike the gems, which are unnaturally flawless and hardly even seem to
be made of real matter, this pectoral was clearly crafted.  Not just to hold
the gems in a decorative sense, though.  As close as my contacts in para-
archaeology could determine, it was created as a sort of ward, to contain the
gems' power and influence."  Focusing on getting her explanation in order was
helping Maddie ignore the pain in her head and the itching in her skin.
     "At the outset, there were three main working theories.  One was that it
was simply a way to let anyone access at least some of the power of the gems,
and the gems were otherwise picky about who could use them.  There's no
record of Professor Shade demonstrating anything like the power you girls
could access, and if it's really him still alive behind you getting the gems,
he was never paranormal but could do some magical feats.  Without the
pectoral, the gems wouldn't have worked for him, maybe."
     "I'm having my doubts about Shade being who he says he is, anyway,"
Julie frowned.
     "True enough.  Another theory was that the gems were captured from an
enemy, and the pectoral was a way to contain their power and parade it around
as a trophy.  The wearer would be on the wrong side to get the goddess's
blessing, but no one else could have it either.  It was an imperfect
container, though, and some power could be accessed."
     Liv, who had been silently chewing her lip in the background, finally
spoke up.  "But you don't believe either of those now, do you?  Because we
went crazy, yah?"
     Maddie shook her head, then regretted it as her vision sparked slightly.
Definitely hit her head on something.  "Theory three looks to be the most
likely now.  The pectoral was made to protect people from the gems.  Whether
it was their original purpose or a mistake, the gems clearly make their
wearers into extreme versions of themselves.  The kind of purity that is
toxic.  I thought I could get you to see it in yourself and fight the
influence, and you did for a while..."
     "The stupid journaling," Jess muttered.
     "Right.  It worked a little, but it wasn't enough.  If the mere presence
of the pectoral could stop the effect, having it at the Cave should've kept
you calmer and more centered whenever you were here, but that wasn't
happening either.  The gems clearly aren't coming out easily, and it's
unlikely any of you would have willingly let me try...well, Liv and Tammy
might have."
     "So, you hypothesized that the interaction of the pectoral's ward with a
living spirit would enable it to fulfill its function and rein in our more
extreme personality aspects."
     Everyone looked at Tammy.
     "What?  I talked like this before I got the gem," she shrugged, looking
a little abashed.
     "True, she did," Julie nodded.
     "And it feels like I hypothesized correctly.  Hopefully this wasn't just
resetting the clock and you'll all go hyper-intense again in a few months,
but at least we've bought some time.  If I hadn't taken the risk, some of you
would probably be dead or at best in Bathory's clutches by now," Maddie
sighed.  "I'm sorry I didn't ask, or even let you know this might be a thing
I could do, but things spiraled out of control so quickly and I kept hoping
you'd hit your limits before the limits hit YOU."
     "I'm not sure how much I can trust you after this," Tee frowned.
     "I don't trust you at all, but I never did," Jess snorted.  "And you
didn't just make us stop being totally insane, you cut our power down.  A
LOT.  I'd already committed to that jump, and suddenly I wasn't strong enough
to do it properly."
     Maddie closed her eyes and sank back down in the cot.  This must be what
Jessa felt like every day, the temptation to reach into someone and fix them,
knowing that on some level it was just plain wrong.  Or what Thomas
experienced once he'd been around normal people enough to see...feel that a
lot of what he'd done as Warden was a violation of other people's minds.
     "I'm sorry," Maddie finally said.  "I think I'm as stuck with this as
you are with the gems, though, so we're going to have to figure out how to
make this work.  Or if we can't make it work, figure out where we'll go from
here.  Meanwhile, unless I was only out for a few minutes, you probably need
to get home before your parents completely freak out."

	       *	      *		     *		    *

[July 6, 2027 - The Li Residence, Chinatown, Manhattan Autonomous Sector]

     The dining room table was quiet, and too empty.
     A single chair was always left empty for "Day of the Lost" observances,
something the Lis had been doing for most of Julie's life.  It was increasing
in "popularity" in places like Manhattan that had been hit the hardest by the
vanishings of a generation ago, but was still pretty obscure outside of
places like New York City or the Dallas diaspora.
     This year, there were two empty chairs.  One for the symbolic lost, and
one for the actual lost...Jiaqi.
     For the first time, the observance hit Julie hard.  It used to just be
something that old people were sad about, and Julie had grown up in a world
already recovering from the "false Rapture" or the "Ride of the Valkyries."
But she had a personal stake in it now.
     What really tore at her heart was that she KNEW where her brother was.
That he was still alive, after a fashion, and would probably even claim to be
doing better than ever.  Worse, she also knew her parents assumed that her
recent "acting out" was a reaction to not knowing where Jiaqi was either,
secrets piled on secrets.
     She glanced to the head of the table, where her father Binyan sat.  As
was the case for much of the remnant population of Manhattan, his job was
almost entirely online, conducted by computer screen and graycell.  He
insisted on doing the family shopping, so he wouldn't forget what the Sun
looked like.  Normally a friendly man, who insisted people call him Ben if
they tripped over his name, he'd been increasingly stressed the last few
years.  First the uncertainty caused by the Autonomous Sector deal, and then
of course Jiaqi's disappearance.
     Her mother Anxiu had always been much more reserved, even uptight, and
that had gotten worse lately.  Too bad there wasn't a magical pendant to help
*her* unwind.
     Would telling her parents the truth help, or only hurt more?  How much
of the truth could she even reveal without giving up secrets that weren't
even hers to share?  Worse, if they knew where Jiaqi was, might they...try to
DO SOMETHING about it?  There was no way that would end well.
     The ritual time of silence ended, but the room still felt quiet and
lonely even with the return of table chatter and news of the day.

	       *	      *		     *		    *

[July 6, 2027 - World Trade Center, Manhattan Autonomous Sector]

     Not everyone observed Day of the Lost at home, and a natural gathering
point for a public observance was the World Trade Center plaza, where so many
had been taken in those first moments of horror.  Madelyn Chin was among the
several score in attendance, dressed conservatively and respectfully despite
the early evening heat still clinging to the city.  It wasn't her usual place
to observe the day...she preferred the more raucous gathering on 5th Avenue
where people celebrated the loss of some of New York's most horrible rich and
powerful people.  But this year she had a reason to be at the Towers.
     --A bit overdressed?-- Jessa Dumont mindspoke to her from across the
plaza.  As the custodians of the site, MetaPsych needed to "show the flag" at
the event, and Jessa chose to be the face of the organization this year.
     ++I can make the thing invisible, like the girls do with their gems, but
until I'm absolutely sure it won't show up under stress or if I pass too
close to an Anchor, no low collars for me,++ Maddie thought back.
     --I'll set you up with a makeup specialist I know, used to do disguise
work for paragangers before she went straight.  Might be able to get you
something Anchor-proof so you don't look weird wearing a high collar when
August rolls around.  You...feel a little different now.  Almost like a
low-level psi?--
     Someone was offering a reminiscence of a lost loved one, an old Puerto
Rican woman talking about how her husband had been tricked into worshipping
Odin, and paid for it with his life and soul.  How she hoped she could
someday forgive him, so she wouldn't be burdened with that when she faced
God.  
     ++I think...I am?  We haven't really tried it much yet, and the girls
are understandably really reluctant to let me see how far I can push it, but
I can sense their presence now, especially when they're nearby or powered
up.  Really strong emotions seem to leak through the link too, although that
might be projection on my part...most of them are pretty pissed at me for not
telling them about the pectoral's potential.++
     --Ouch.  Welcome to, "If you wanted privacy, you shouldn't have been
thinking so loud."  My sympathies.  I can certainly give you some exercises
at blocking if you want to give them more privacy, though.  It's a common
problem with empath types.  We might need to tweak it, if I'm right in
suspecting that you're now acting as an emotional buffer for them...block
them out too much and they might go back to the unguided emotional missile
behavior.--
     ++Ugh.  My parents nag me about settling down and having kids, now I've
got five of 'em and I did it to myself.++
     --So, how are your babies right now?-- Maddie could feel the smirk in
Jessa's mindspeak.
     ++Taking some time off, mostly family time since it's a holiday, sort
of.  They've decided to not give up on me or the team yet, but I didn't want
to push on it right away, so we're taking a few days apart.  They're all
powered down and far enough away I'm not picking up anything unless I really
focus, and at least one of them can tell when I focus on her, so I'm trying
to avoid that right now.++
     --Are you sure Jess can really feel it, and yes I know that's who you
meant?--
     ++Her specific gift seems to be hypervigilance, so yeah I think she
can.  Liv can probably sense it too, since she's hyperempathic, but she's too
nice to call me on it.++
     --Well, that's good...oops, my turn to speak.  Talk to you later.--
     Maddie spent the rest of the ceremony in respectful silence.  Like many
of those present, she held a somewhat worn photograph of someone lost at the
end of the 20th Century.  It was her grandfather, who'd died before July 6,
1998, and who she'd never really known other than a few snapshot memories
from when she was a toddler.  Despite his double life, he'd tried to make
time for his granddaughter even as the world was going to hell all around
them in the Godmarket.
     Lately, she felt a lot closer to the side of his life he hadn't revealed
to her before he died....

	       *	      *		     *		    *

[July 8, 2027 - Plato's Cave]

     "Okay, there's only so many tests I can run inside, but I wanted to do
those before any of you try going back on the streets and rooftops," Maddie
addressed the girls in the small underground training room.  "You're all
slower, weaker, and easier to hurt than the last time I could get you to
actually be tested."
     There were varying levels of groaning and sounds of dismay from the
girls, most loudly from Octa-Green.
     "However, at least some of that is almost definitely due to the fact
that you're capable of showing restraint now, I'm pretty sure you were all
pushing yourselves too hard last time, even Pink.  When you're actually
worried about breaking your hand, you don't punch as hard, for instance, even
if you're no more likely to hurt yourself in the tests.  And you're still
performing at a level above when we first met, training and simple
familiarity with what you can do goes a long way."
     "I believe we should also focus on our unique talents," Hexa-Blue
suggested.  "It is unlikely that Dodeca-Yellow and Icosa-Pink are the only
ones who have gem-related abilities unlike those possessed by the rest of us,
or that those abilities are purely limited to finding each other or hiding
from each other."
     "Hypervigilance isn't a power," Yellow muttered, "it's a symptom."
     "Why not both?" Pink grinned.  "Like, we all know the gems were making
us totally extreme versions of ourselves, yah?  Making us better at all the
things we already do.  Blue was more think-y, you were more scout-y, I was
more freaking out all the time worried about how I might hurt someone by
accident, that kind of thing?  The gems were trying to make us MORE, but
doing it not really right and so we weren't just more good we were more bad
and more of a problem for everyone around us."
     Maddie sighed inwardly.  At least Liv was back to what passed for
normal.  "Right, that's a good point.  Now that the pectoral is moderating
the influence of the gems," she tapped her chest for emphasis, causing a dull
metallic thud of fabric over metal, "you might have more control over what
the gems are doing FOR you.  Choose what aspects to amplify rather than
having all your dials cranked up to eleven."
     "Eleven what?" Octa-Green furrowed her brows.
     "Old pop cultural reference.  Before my time," Maddie shrugged.
"Anyway, before we start brainstorming ways to look for Special Powers, how
did things go at home after you all got back way after any reasonable
curfew?"
     "Pff.  My parents stopped caring where I was months ago," Dodeca-Yellow
shook her head.  "They just assume Moody Rebellious Teenager and figure I'll
settle down eventually.  They really don't even worry about me being out all
hours alone.  I don't think they get that this is actually still a dangerous
place.  They buy Umbrae's line of bullshit about all the gangs being
pacified."
     "Well, I can't say that's GOOD, but at least no immediate new problems,"
Maddie frowned.
     "My folks freaked out, but they were so glad I didn't vanish like Chachi
that they forgave me," Tetra-Red sighed.  "I wish I could tell them he's
fine.  Especially since I really don't think he IS fine."
     Octa-Green shrugged somewhat guiltily.  "I've been worrying my parents a
lot the last few months, picking fights over the stupidest things.  When I
actually apologized the other day, I think mom decided I'd gotten whatever
was into me, OUT of me...and I can't say she's exactly wrong on that, yeah?"
     "My parents have been too busy helping upgrade all the CyberNostra gear
so someone like Dr. Jacky can't try to build another Supernaut out of, um,
spare parts again, so they hadn't really noticed," Icosa-Pink said a little
wistfully.  "I don't think Granny picked up on much, and...um, I might have
kinda implied to her I was extra-moody because of, you know, the thingy...."  
     Rather than wait for Liv to meander her way embarrassedly to the point
that everyone had picked up on, Hexa-Blue interjected.  "I had already
established twenty-three plausible alibis for my superhero-related absences
and gained backdoor access to relevant visitor logs and surveillance systems
in the event I needed to convince my parents of my reasons for being gone.  I
simply deployed one of those to cover Sunday night.  Otherwise, my increasing
obsessiveness was of a rather quieter form than those of the rest of the
team, and could easily be ascribed to taking school more seriously as the
matter of college approaches."
     Maddie nodded.  "At some point we're going to have to bring your
families in on the secret, if only because 'Professor Shade' clearly already
knew all of our identities and if his motives are...shady, sorry...then
coming clean to them gives him one less point of leverage."
     "Yeah," Tetra-Red punched one hand into the other palm.  "If Shade's
actually one of the badguys using us to beat up his rivals, we're pretty
damned screwed once he decides we're not useful anymore.  I don't think we
should tell our families NOW, but...yeah.  We gotta figure out HOW we wanna
do it, not IF we wanna do it."
     "Assuming we can't find Shade before he or she feels it's time to
dispose of us, of course," Hexa-Blue replied with a contemplative tone.

	       *	      *		     *		    *

[July 10, 2027 - The Scott Building, Manhattan Autonomous Sector]

     "They didn't get themselves killed this time, dear," Rex Umbrae declared
as he entered the private suite he shared with his cyborg wife, Maria
Incanata.  "I believe I win our side bet."
     "That just means I get to figure out how to kill them myself once
Bathory's taken care of," she purred, extending needle-thin claws from the
fingers of her left hand and admiring them as if they were a fancy manicure. 
     "Don't be so hasty.  They're potentially a solid long term investment at
this point.  They've proven they can resist the worst influences of Arete's
gems, which means that it may be possible to convince them to become part of
the city's power structure when they outgrow their penchant for prowling
rooftops.  I believe it's time to bring a new piece onto the board, give them
a little more of a perspective on the Realpolitik of the superhuman
community.  Or, perhaps, a rather old piece?"  
     Rex chuckled and started composing a subtle and coded message to one of
his many minions, one who had contacts in the right place to set his new idea
into motion.

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Author's Notes: 

     Sorry to leave a relative cliffhanger hanging for so long.  Recovering
from minor surgery tended to eat away my spoons for a bit, and by the time
that was done my Transformers review backlog was getting out of hand and I
needed to attack that.  Still, at least I finished the second arc ("Monster
of the Week") before the hiatus.  
     This arc, "Forging the Sword," is going to be about the Morning Stars
taking control of their powers rather than having their powers take control
of them as was happening in "Monster of the Week."  I do have very rough
plotting through this arc and the next one, currently expected to take me to
#24, but I'm willing to expand the arcs if I decide the story needs more room
to breathe.  Of course, making #25-26 a big Season Finale final clash with
Bathory would certainly be in keeping with a TV-inspired sort of schedule.
     No, I don't yet have any plans for a "Season 2" after that, but heck,
I've only written half of Season 1 so far.  Maybe some of those danglers I've
had sitting around in ASH will be more appropriate for a Season 2 Shadow
Girls than for a return to the ASH title.  

     For those who pay attention to filenames, I decided to finally change
the name convention from ShadowGirlsXX to SGXX because it was bugging me to
have to keep typing out the full thing every time and I wish I'd thought to
go with just SG from the start, ah well.  No point in going back and changing
the older ones, since I don't need to type those filenames unless I spot a
typo.  :)

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