Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion Part 2

More writing Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion Part 2 The next morning was the usual ritual of Kat shouting "teeth, hair, shoes" for about an hour at her daughters before the bus arrived and took the girls to school, Kat put a couple of hours in on the lap top for War Child, the wand and, she'd started to think of it as a flip phone by now, at arms length at all times, she lost herself in work until the alarm set the night before went off, she powered down the lap top, locked up the house, went back in for the wand and flip phone which went into a lap top back, locked up again, got in her Ford Focus and went into town. On 3rd it wasn't hard to find a parking space, and she sat in the car, suddenly nervous about getting out of the car. "find your centre, breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, repeat" after a few breaths she got out of the car taking the lap top bag with everything in it, locked the car, dropped the keys in the bag and zipped it up, slung the strap over her shoulder, head back and walked into the bar, and a chapter of her past she sometimes wished she couldn't remember. "large, chilled white wine please," she asked the bar tender, before going to sit at a table, lap top bag in front of her. The wine arrived and Kat ordered another as she knocked the first one back quickly. As her second drink arrived a smart looking blonde woman walked in a long coat," Claire, over here," kat called out, "what are you having?" "orange juice please." Claire said to the bar staff, she took the coat off and placed it over the back of her chair, taking a document wallet out of an inside pocket and placed it on the table. The drink appeared, "thank you," Claire took a drink, "so what have you been doing since..." she trailed off, unsure how to finish. " I got active with the War Child charity, I was one of the faces for a few years after we were stood down, I still do the administration for them, and what have you been doing?" " I got hired by the FBI, after the academy I kind of gravitated to the spooky cases. " Kat laughed, " a spooky spook? " Claire smiled," pretty much yes, " she opened the wallet and got the fan out," I even let some of the lab rats run some tests on this," she shook it out, the clear panels, each formed of a single diamond, hinged out with a snick, the strange glimmer inside when she touched it a fimilliar rainbow, "the best they could tell me was it was diamond and a copper & zinc alloy of some wired exotic mix they'd never seen before, and the power source was something they guessed was either earth energy or zero point energy, they didn't have the equipment to check for sure, something about it not even being on the drawing board to work out what the battery runs on in this, and presumably yours and Angels runs as well." Kat reached into the bag and drew the wand and flip phone out, the faint glow of purple light there, for the first time in a long time she looked at the mount for the gem and the shaft of the wand, it was a strange reddish gold colour that she hadn't thought about before, Claire had brought 3 dna testing kits out of her wallet, "I also did a dna test on myself and it was fairly normal apart from a unique mitochondrial dna strand, I was hoping you would do one of these so I could get it tested, there's 2 for your daughters as well," "thanks, it's just the one you wipe the inside of your cheek with?" Claire nodded, "although I let the girls try the wand last night and they didn't get the glow." "maybe get your parents tested as well, I can mail some more test if you want?" "I can try, things never really calmed down after between us. Don't forget I spent 6 months sofa surfing around your's, Angel's and," Kat stopped and took a breath, she hadn't even said Peaches name out loud since they'd saved the world, "Morven's families when I couldn't sleep at the Centre." The door swung in, and a tall woman walked in bum first, pulling a stroller behind her, both Kat and Claire looked at each other and frowned, Claire stood up "Angel?" she asked. "in the flesh, 2 juices please," Angel asked the bar tender, Kat looked her up and up some more. " I guess you got that growth spurt late then? " The last time they'd met Angel had been 4ft 11, aged 17 and a bit angry at fitting cloths aimed at 10 year old. Angel swung the stroller round, and put the break on, her youngest child hid behind his cuddly toy, brown eyes twinkling, she pulled the shield out of what looked like a nappy bag and put it on the table, it was the size of a side plate, made of the same reddish gold metal as the shaft of the wand, a single Carnelian in the centre of it, brought together the three items glowed with an inner light, their old flop phones also took on a sheen they hadn't had before, the ladies looked at each other. "yeah, I got to 18 and a half and grew a foot and a half in year, I made the girls basketball team in the last year of high school, and all the way through business school. That's my nursery out of town." "no!" Kat looked surprised, "I was there about a month ago, I had no idea that was your place. I'm in the market for a fence panel, do you have any?" the pair briefly worked out the cost of the replacement panel. Claire asked the question, "how did you break it?" "well after we spoke yesterday I went out and did some exercises with it, I did the old moves and and nothing happened, I shouted out the heart blast words and startled all the wild life for about quarter of a mile. You telling me you haven't tried them?" Kat pointed at the shield and fan, Angel shook her head, " no time with this one and his sister and brother." "I was to scared to try it, but judging by the glow, they've all been switched back on again, as have these." Claire picked up her flip phone, and opened it, the internal crystal screen shimmered, she pressed it and a voice that they all thought they wouldn't ever hear again filled the air, with its rich deep syllables, " Greetings Power Friends, the world is once more in danger and only you can save it." Kat leaned over to Angel and whispered "is he talking yet?" "Just mama and dada, why?" "I'd be about to teach him a new word," Kat sat back up right. "Are you for fucking real?" The voice paused, thrown off by this reaction, the world went hazy around the edges and the old friends were standing in the interface room again, with the strange black stone and blue grey lights, what looked like a giant test tube stood on end, the unknown figure inside still, what could be made out of it looked human but there was something off about it, Angel looked around, "okay first thing, you either send us back or bring my son here right now." the voice made a noise and there was a wave of air as the stroller appeared. "Right now, seriously what the fuck? It wasnt really acceptable to do that to us as teenagers, now it really isn't acceptable at all, you have a serious explanation you need to give us." Angel finished. The person in the tank moved, the stuff filling it swirled to slowly for water, "the Gate Way between the worlds has been forced open again, I need you to close it before this world collides with another." Claire answered," we aren't kids anymore, we have jobs and these 2 are parents, they can't just drop everything and run off to the save the world, we shouldn't have been doing that as teenagers, you realise how much trouble you caused us in high school by pulling us out when it suited you? " " pardon?" the voice asked " dragging us out here when it suited you, on a moments notice? No time to study, we all struggled with high school, Kat ended up kicked out by her parents because of you. " " err, it was for the good of the world, the whole of humanity needed you, and your unique abilities to use the relics to defend the world from those on the other side" "still doesn't change the fact we can't just jump at a moments notice" Kat answered "we need to know where the cracks are this time so we can fill it fast rather than fire fight our way through a series of adventures. I have a mortgage, work commitments, as well as a family, Angel has 3 kids, what about you Claire?" "I couldn't have kids after we finished things last time, but I do have 2 cats and a high level government job." Both Angel and Kat muttered apologies to Claire, "you," Kat pointed at the tube, "need to work out where we are going first, so things like child care can be arranged." "So you now need me to inform you before there is a cross over event?" "isn't there some build up before the events happen that you can trace with whatever thing it is you have to track them?" Claire asked. "there are currently 2 builds up that I am feeling, one is in England, one is in Mexico" "And which one is the most intense? How long before they become a problem?" "the cracks intensity can change in a moment, it's hard to judge. Is there a reason for this?" Angel answered "in my case I haven't done anything intense for a few years, I need to get some exercise." Kat made noises of agreement, Claire looked at each of them and crumbled," we could do with some training time at the very least to get muscle memory back." "based on past evidence, there should not be an incident for at least 10 to 14 days." The voice assured them. "Okay, so my place has a big garden and a few acres of woods behind with some decent tracks in" Kat offered, Angel looked to Claire who nodded in agreement. "okay well I need your address so I can get there, and I'll have all 3 kids with me tomorrow." "that shouldn't be a problem, my 2 will be home, so hopefully they'll get on. Okay send us back so we can sort out our stuff," Kat finished. The world went blurry again and the 3 of them and the stroller where standing behind the chairs they'd been sat in, they sat down again and looked at each other. " We are really doing this again?" Angel asked " looks like it. I wouldn't want to put some other teenager through what we went through." Kat said. "I agree," said Claire, "it's not something any kid should be doing." The friends exchanged contact details and Kat waved for the cheque, the bar tender came over with a card reader, Kat pulled out her bank card, and pushed it in, and entered her pin, the receipt printed out, and she was handed a copy, the bar tender took the shop copy, then looked again at the items on the table and the 3 women, " ca, can I ask you to sign this please?" all 3 looked up at him, Angel pointed her finger and went "uuurrrgghh... Ricky? Our biggest fan?" He smiled "yes, I thought it was you when you walked in, but I didn't want to say anything. And then you vanished, I just thought you'd gone out for a smoke at first but you weren't on the cameras on back or out front. You getting back together?" "it looks that way, don't put this on line though, and please don't leak who we are. All of us are trusting you Ricky."

Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion

So more writing from me again rather than painting this week, working on part 2 tonight, inspired by the picture below.

I'll try and keep this to a chapter per post, obviously this is chapter 1 of The Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion.

Cat looked up suddenly from her lap top, the world had felt like it shifted by an n th of a degree on it axis, that had happened once before, 20 years ago, to use her friends phrase, "the world tasted purple for a second there", she went to her wardrobe and dug out her old hello kitty address book, and rifled through the pages, "I honestly thought I'd never have to call the gang again, that's why I never bothered to add them on my phone.." she thought. Just then the land line rang, she picked up the extension, "San Demas 6565, Katherine speaking," the words came out as if on rote. "Amathest sparkle, did everything just taste purple for you?" It couldn't be Peach Perfection after the last mission they'd been on, "Tangerine Delight is that you?" Kat asked "No, it's Claire, Diamond Rainbow" Kat heard the beep of a second call on Claire 's phone, "hang on, I'll add this to the call," Claire' s voice went distant for a moment as she moved the handset away from her face and there was a click and a 3rd person was added to the call. "did everything just taste purple for you?" the new voice asked "It did, Angel, good to hear your voice again,its been too long." "The world hasn't needed saving for a while," Claire said, " I think we need to meet up and talk about this, Kat's in San Demas still, where are you now Angel?" "About half an hour out of town, is the Mall still open? The one with the Ice Rink?" "just about" Kat said, "there's a decent coffee shop in there." "I think we'll need something stronger than coffee by the end of this, better make it the wine bar on 3rd, tomorrow lunch time?" "I'll probably have my youngest with me, too short notice for childcare." Angel said, Kat glanced at the portrait of her 2 kids, now 15 and 12, and panicked at the thought of her oldest having to go through the same things she'd had to endure in her teenage years, besides the hormones, horny boys and periods, they'd been the expectation of using her magic powers, along with her friends to save the world. "hang on, need to text my oldest." she pulled her cell out and texted her daughter the familiar question. Mum- did everything just taste purple for you? First Born- lol nope, what does that even mean? Mum- x plane later, Kat let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding," yes 12.30 is good for me tomorrow. If you have your things, bring them." "even the outfit?" Claire asked "I'm not walking into a bar with my arse hanging out of a micro skirt," Kat fired back," just the kit, my amathest sparkle jewel heart wand, your tangerine delight smiley face shield, the diamond rainbow fan and the communicaters." "alright, see you tomorrow" Angel said and hung up, "tomorrow" said Claire, and put the phone down, Kat looked at the hand set for a few seconds then put it down with mixed feelings, before digging through the kids old toy box for her things. The wand was fine, the amethyst in the top still looked plastic, but was heavy, and had cracked a few Jaws when swung in battle, the comm unit had looked like bleeding edge tech in the late 90's but now just looked like an unloved flip phone, she smiled holding it in her hand, the unit had powered down about the same time she'd got pregnant the first time, and if she remembered rightly would need the other 2 units and the power items together to get a re charge, slipping the unit in her pocket, she picked up the wand and walked out into the garden. Kat often practiced her ti chi and yoga in the garden so hoped this wouldn't draw unwanted attention, and as they only had neighbours on the one side who were both out working during the day, she hoped no one would see. She first centered her chi, and focused on the wand, the heart shimmered a little, or was it just the sun light refracting off facets in the gem? Kat went through several moves, staying focused on the heart, getting more agitated as she felt something building up inside her, she practiced her usual moves that had unleashed the amethyst blast, and felt the remembered tension in her arms and chest, but it just wouldn't release, she glanced around, jumped up to make sure no one was near, then muttering under her breath, "I don't fucking believe I have to say the god damn words still." one last glance around, still no one. Kat adopted a repoist pose, jabbed the wand forward like a fencer lunging with a foil and shouted " Amethyst heart blast!" The beam was purple on the edges and black in the core, it blew the fence panel to pieces and removed branch's off trees and startled birds and wild life for a quarter mile from the house. "'fuck me." escaped from her lips," the damn words are the focus," she tried another one, a giggle escaped this time, an under arm upwards swing, "Heavy heart swing", there was a corona of power around the gem at the top of the swing, the last one she was willing to try today was the healing power, taking the wand in both hands she held to her chest and said "healing heart", the warm glow of the jewel filled her, relaxing the tension in her arms and legs. "have to try that one on a hangover, see if it does any good," she thought to herself as she walked back up to the house, once in WiFi range she got her phone out and checked the prices on the fence panels. Once in the house, Kat opened out her lap top and put a few more hours in for the War Child charity she worked for. When the kids got home from school the 3 of them pitched in and got dinner ready, once sat eating at the table Amy, the older child asked the question Kat had been expecting since she got home, "okay so what does 'did everything taste purple?' mean" Kat swallowed her mouthful of food, and took a drink to give herself time to think. "it was something we used to say to each other when I was your age" She'd aimed for a neutral tone, not sure if she'd achieved it, she took another drink, wishing for something stronger than juice. Thea her younger daughter perked up suddenly, "oh when you were in the Rainbow Friends?" she asked, excitedly. Kat took another drink and swallowed and poured herself a top up from the jug, the ice cubes clinking, then looked at Thea, "yes from then, it was a sort of hello between us and kind of a warning that something was coming." the girls looked at each other, then to their mum, Amy said it first "so is there something, you wouldn't ask me if there wasn't a reason would you?" "are we safe?" Thea added, Kat leaned back and pulled out the communicater, "I can't say, this," she waved what felt like an antique then put it on the table, "powered down about the time I got pregnant with you, and this was the only way we could reach The Supreme Intelligence." Amy looked at her mum, "that's one of our toys, we used to play with it all the time, same as the wand, are you telling us those were actually real?" "they were powered down at that time," Kat finished the sentence talking into her glass. "WERE?" Thea shouted in excitement, Kat put the wand on the table, and Thea grabbed it, and waved it around her head, nothing happened, "oh" Thea was visiblely disappointed that she hadn't blown a hole in the gable wall and put it on the table, Amy looked at it like it was a loaded gun, she looked the question at her mum, Kat nodded her head and she picked it up, and waved it, nothing happened again, Amy put it back on the table, Kat picked it up again and the faintest purple glow emerged from the gem, "twilight light" she said, tiredly, and a deep purple light filled the room, Amy and Thea looked at their mum in a new way, "yes you both get an extra swear word this week". Amy just let out a long slow "fuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkk" Thea asked "can I save it? And can I try again?" Kat handed the wand over, "hold it up and save what I said" Thea tried, "twilight light!" she shouted, nothing happened. "dam... Darnation," she caught herself, determined to have a double swear on Friday, Amy tried the wand again and still nothing happened, Kat felt relieved that whatever reason it was that she could use this, it had skipped her children. Life went back to normal right after dinner with Thea asking to use the lap top to do her home work, and the usual question of when could she have her own lap top.

The World After

6 months after it happened, with food and fuel running out in the bunker and wanting something to drink other than recycled water, the group drew staws for who should be first to go on a scavenger trip. They studied the camera footage, and flew the drones out as far as they'd go, retrieval of those was also now on the to do list, but it still hadn't prepared the team for what they'd find in the world afterwards.

The selected crew assembled in the entrance of the bunker, a couple of the bunker population were preparing the Off roader that had been selected for the first mission. The administrater was waiting for the crew, "first off, thank you for agreeing to go on the mission, even if you drew the short straw you can still back out, there are some volunteers eager to take a look outside, but for our first look I'd like to think we're sending out a team that will be coming back with some extra supplies."

The team preparing the Hotspur Hussar hybrid finished by disconnecting the power cable and waved everyone over, the lead mechanic started his briefing " Right, there's a full tank, and full batteries, you've got spare batteries and jump cables to help restart anything you might come across to help transport supplies back, as well as this," he handed over a length of pipe, "to syphon fuel out of anything" the mechanic then handed each of the 5 members of the party a small tool kit wrap, "magnetic screw driver with 7 bits, 2 small adjustable spanners, sockets, ratchets, spanner set, hammer, punch& chisel to punch a hole if the filler cap has an anti theft filter, don't loose them, these are almost as important as any weapon you take, if you find more tools, snag them as well for us. And now for the internals I'll hand you over to the technical guy." The technical guy was still in the back of the Hussar, going over the systems one last time, she brushed some hair from her face and looked at the party and smiled. "the system in here is the same as everything else, so there's nothing new to learn on that front, there's a camera mast to give you a wider field of view," she pointed at the control panel for the mast, "but it's not really something you can use while moving, so we've packed in several small drones to help with spotting points of interest," the drones were packed on a shelf near the roof, she jumped down and walked around from the back door to the front door and opened it up," the drive is a standard h pattern gear box, the hussar is a 6 wheeler, with 2 front and 4 rear wheels all driven," she pointed to the sides, "2 spares if you get a puncture and repair kit is in a panel in the door, if you need it. And now back to the administrator" The administrater pulled out 2 lists and handed them to the to the crew, " Short lists for the first time out, fresh water and fuel are top, locate the drones and pick them up if they are still usable. And lastly update the map after what happened," the administrator walked over to the door lock, hand on the palm reader and eye to the retinal scanner, and the unlock option flashed up, the administrator looked at the crew," good luck out there, "he said as he pressed the button, the siren sounded, and several loud clunk's as the lock disengaged, the blast door swung open, the crew got in the Hotspur and slowly drove into the tunnel that lead to the outside, it turned gently through 45 degrees and through several baffles that looked like a fighter jet could pass through them, the technician, mechanic and administer followed them out, and watched as they reached the opening that lead outside. "the nearest city is that way." the administrate pointed down the concrete runway.

Early 9th Ed Plans.

So early plans for 9th, and I hope I'm right about this, the Outriders will get 2 squads, to make up for the 2 of the old ones that I'm now not going to do, I do wonder if GW will do an attack bike version of it or just let that go...as I currently have 4 full squads of bikes, plan to 2 Assault Intercessors squads and nebulous idea of starting a Necron army next year in 2021, so the Guard army gets bumped again. Potentially looking at 2 of the starter boxes, going halves on 1 and keeping the second for myself, and also the Forge World book and The Lion as so looks like GW are getting a lot of spare cash this year.

Necron Side Cleaned Up

Edit for a better pic

Again someone else's work. Edit This could be the the spear head boxed set for 9th ed. 10 assault intercesors 3 Primaris Bikers 5 sword and board veterans 3 heavy weapon troopers 1 ancient 1 chaplain-esque model with the hourglass and sword (Word is he’s a librarian) 1 chaplain-esque model with maul (Word is he could be Primaris Cassius) 20 Necron warriors 1 Necron noble with stave and 2 retainers 1 Necron noble with war glaive and 2 scarab bases 1 Necron Destroyer 3 lesser multi legged Necron warrior constructs like we saw the sister and marine fight in the trailer 1 greater multi legged Necron warrior construct like we saw at the end of the trailer 1 construct of unclear purpose 1 multi legged war construct with a shell that resembles that of a canoptek spyder

Marine Pick Cleaned Up

Not my work, found on the wilds of 40k Facebook groups, so can't credit the cleaner. Edit This could be the the spear head boxed set for 9th ed. 10 assault intercesors 3 Primaris Bikers 5 sword and board veterans 3 heavy weapon troopers 1 ancient 1 chaplain-esque model with the hourglass and sword (Word is he’s a librarian) 1 chaplain-esque model with maul (Word is he could be Primaris Cassius) 20 Necron warriors 1 Necron noble with stave and 2 retainers 1 Necron noble with war glaive and 2 scarab bases 1 Necron Destroyer 3 lesser multi legged Necron warrior constructs like we saw the sister and marine fight in the trailer 1 greater multi legged Necron warrior construct like we saw at the end of the trailer 1 construct of unclear purpose 1 multi legged war construct with a shell that resembles that of a canoptek spyder

Finished Some Things

I started out today by sleeping poorly, when I woke in the early afternoon, I double checked the Exodite box and pulled out Cru Ella Devile, with the plan to replace one of the Lords of Old Troupe with her as well as the Dire Avengers Exarch replacing the Wrack conversion I had been using. I remembered to pack the paints I needed today.

And part of the paints I packed was the black templar contrast stuff for the Knights, they got a dawnstone highlight when dry then I got around to the bases, I do like them, but there is so much effort needed to be put into them...

The Usual Spring Time Downtime

Got myself back into a half decent place and have started painting again, I started with the 2 horses as when I started I had forgotten the black templar contrast for the Knights.

I also got a start on the replacement for the Harlequins, with the replacement Paladin. I also forgot the purple paint as well so again focused on the white for this one, it was a Dire Avengers Exarch, and as this Troupe is based on The Wild Cards I was using the titles of the major arcane cards from a tarot deck of cards for dome of them. I am thinking of getting some more Exarch to represent these guys now.

Harlequin Plans

At the end of the last Monthly Vow post I brought up the Harlequins and said I plan to swop out some of the old fantasy Wardancers for some of the Daughters of Khaine underworld minis, I also had a dig in my Harlequins case today and pulled out some of the other bits I'm thinking of changing.

First up the Shadow Seer from the Star Players Troupe, I expect to do poorly on this one.

This is one of mine that I was happy with for a while, just looking at it today though I feel it could have been better or I could have used a better mini, so I bought a Dire Avengers Exarch and will use that to replace the Paladin in the Lords of Old Troupe.

I honestly think I'll get 2 of this, and add one as a choice for the Solitaire, as for this one it'll replace the Executioner in the Star Players Troupe who was Death.

This is another one from the Star Players Troupe, The One Who Takes, that will be replaced by the dashing character with the fancy villain Cape.

This one will be used, I just need to get my hands on it to decide what I'm doing with it.

And this is going to be a Death Jester just not sure which Masque to put it in.

Nearly 3 Weeks

I have made my new bed, I can take 5 more minutes laying in it before I have to go to work. Looking forward to sleeping in it tomorrow.

Monthly Vow 14th of April To The 12th Of May

Yes I definitely have failed at all targets this month, but with the problems with the bed and *waves hand at what's going on in the wider world* my mental health took a big dip this month, on a positive note the damn screw arrived for the bed today so my first build this month is the new bed, probably when I get out of work on Thursday morning. Beyond the new bed the Night Haunt Knights and the second part of the grave yard set are top of the list both the one for me and the commission piece for my Co worker, there is a bolt pistol arm and a plasma pistol arm I want to put on the Lazarus mini, going forward those Intercessors aren't going to paint themselves, so will set a safe goal of 1 squad and finish the Repulsor

Review Time

Started off with putting the Chaplain Dreadnought back together and painting it, there was a pause while I found a thumb for it, which was donated by the herald dread.

Also got the other 2 in this Talon out for a photo.

This Primaris Lieutenant came with the box of Silver Templar's stuff at the tail end of Conquest's run, and was a nice easy return to power armour.

Master Lazarus was a couple of nights work as by the end of the first night I couldn't focus on the details of the shoulder pads.

These 2 are lovely, really nice and quick to put together with no big gaps.

I started to put this together and was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that goes on it, and my mood wasn't good at this point.

This one doesn't have a plan, I got a load of bits off a mate this month and in there was a few Harlequins bits, including something that could be used as the Shadow Seer 's grenade pack, I have 2 of these and 1 of those is going on the Spell Singer I'm using as this Troupes Shadow Seer. With the previews of the underworld boxes and the shadow elves I knew I was going to use those for some stuff in the Harlequins box, I dig out the Wyld One's Troupe and instantly decided to bin the very old Wardancers and will, when that box is out replace them with those, the Lumineth female wizard I like to think I'll use that to replace my Star Player Shadow Seer as the Mother, the Hollow Armoured guy I'm planning on folding into either the Nobility of Old Troupe as The Emperor or possibly their player in the Star Players Troupe, just need to go through that box again, and wait for those to be released.