#rainbowsparklepowerfriendsreunited Part 13
The rest of the party looked surprised as they watched the whisp grow to the tall stern looking woman, with a face that wasn't entirely human. "Greetings males and females, welcome to the Glorious 100 Defenders of Humanity."
Both The Knights of Sâl Arwydd and Araceli and Lola looked confused, "Pardon?" and various versions as well as the Spanish equivalent was heard.
"None of us understand that at all." Was the concensus of the nine new arrivals.
The Warden switched to English, "I forgot and apologies, the Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends have an innate understanding of the language I speak, if the armour chooses you, you'll be granted the same ability as well. If you follow the whisp it will take to the armoury." She finished as she folded in on her self. A fragment of light detached and floated in the room. It wafted towards a tunnel leading into the deeper reaches of the Tomb. They all followed with Kat and Angel leading the way.
The side entrances the 3 Rainbow Friends had gone into and found the suspended Nephilim were closed off, Angel noted this and cast Kat a raised eye brow look. They reached the armoury antichamber with the 7 crystal circles in the floor and celling.
"if you stand on the circles you'll be scanned, & then a doorway will open that gives us access to the armoury. There are 7 of you gents, do you want to go first?" Angel asked.
The 7 Knights looked at each other and agreed amongst themselves to do it, walking forward to stand on the crystals.
"It'll get bright and it'll take a few seconds, and when the light goes out it'll take a few seconds to adjust back to the light levels in here." Kat warned everyone. The severn Knights were swallowed by the white glow for 30 seconds. The door in the wall that lead to the armoury ground open, sinking into the floor and walls and the top of the archway in numerous petals, Araceli and Lola looked around the archway into the armoury, checking out the racks of weapons on display and whispering in Spanish between themselves. "We couldn't hear anything from hear either, we had to be in front of ours to hear them, the armour had a certain glow that we could see." She told them. The men were looking around themselves and blinking. "Your turn ladies." Kat said steering Lola and Araceli to the crystals in the floor, they stood on 2 of the crystals circles and the glow rose again, Lola was done much faster than Araceli, who watched the light glow and fade over her relative, until it dimmed and Araceli stood again on the crystal.
"Are you okay?" she asked in Spanish,"You looked like you faded out a bit there."
"I'm not sure what happened, but I feel like I'm energised." Araceli replied, crossing her arms and stretch in the armour.
"Okay everyone, the last time we were here we found a spear and a weapon that sang to each of us, I'm sorry I can't put it any better than that, but you'll understand when you hear it." Kat said.
Angel carried on "At the end of the armory on either side are rooms full of armour, there were 50 sets on each side but Kat, Claire and myself each claimed a suit so there's 48 on one side and 49 on the other. Check the gem stone on your weapon for an idea of which suit will match you. There is a space to test fire your weapons at the end of the room it might be a firing range or just space that wasn't used. So when you've been selected bring your weapons back here and let the next person go. As Lola doesn't have anything, she can go first?" She switched to Spanish and repeated for Lola and Araceli," You first Lola," as she waved her into the room.
Lola walked through the arch and looked at the racks of spears in front of her.
She walked along the first rack & the second, she stopped at the third rack and reached out for one of the spears and a black, purple and green glow illuminated the room briefly as she touched it. She carried on walking past the racks stopping at a heavy looking sword and a green curved shield. As she reached out the Saint Elmo's fire arcing between her hand and the sword was visible to everyone watching closely.
Lola looked back to the entrance, "What now?" she asked in Spanish.
"Come back and let someone else pick, then we'll all go and sort out the armour." Angel replied, Lola walked back to the group. Very quickly everyone else found there weapons and they moved down to the armour storage rooms.
"This is a reminder, the armour that'll sing to you will have the same gem stone on the breast plate as the one in your weapons, you need to touch the stone on the armour. The Warden is capable of fitting the spear head onto the gauntlet, leaving a hand free, if you want that. The spear also fires various blasts of energy." Angel carried on.
" Rapid blasts, wide beam, focused beam. You do need to call the shot." Kat informed them all, rolling her eyes as she did." We'll go up to the hanger later and you can fire some blasts off. You first Lola, try this side." Kat finished in Spanish, guiding her through the arch that Kat had found her armour," Oh mine's there" she said with surprise. Lola walked around the room checking the gem stones, and reached out to a suit that had the matching gem to the one in her weapons. The room glowed green when she touched it. Everyone else followed Lola and found a suit, they returned to the crystal circles with Araceli and Lola going first, glowing with dark and white light in the shafts of solid light. When the glow faded the 2 Mexican woman stood in their suits of orichalcum armour, the spear heads already mounted in the gauntlets.
Araceli looked worriedly at Kat and Angel "What happened to my armour?" She shouted.
"Don't know, but it'll be what you're wearing when you change back. You can check the room back there to see if your armour is there?"
Araceli ran to the archway and looked into the room, eyes darting over the racks and stands, the familiar green shades of her families armour weren't there. She exploded in Spanish,
"It's not here! It's not here! Where is it?! Where's the light lady thing?" Araceli demanded.
"Use the communicater on your belt." Angel called back in Spanish.
She fumbled in her belt and pulled it out and flipped it open, she looked at Kat and Angel, "Top crystal?" she asked, Kat nodded, she thumbed the crystal, "Hi light lady where'd my armour go?" She asked.
"Oh Spanish," The Warden answered, " your armour is in the with the Looms, I'm weaving the Orichalcum into the armour. This will take a short time." She finished.
"I need to see this, where are the Looms?" the panic was audible in her voice.
A whisp of light appeared, "Follow the whisp." The Warden informed Araceli.
Kat and Angel looked at each other as Araceli followed the whisp, "I'll follow her." Kat volunteered as Lola walked out of the room with her cousin, "Follow us? I'm pretty sure those suits," Kat waved at the seven guys, "are going to end up in the same place" Kat finished following Lola from the armoury.
"Ask about Claire's plan" Angel called, Kat nodded as she went out of the arch. Angel turned and looked at the 7 men, "Your turn," she said waving them towards the crystal circles," and we'll get a whisp lead us to the looms." They walked to the circles of crystal in the floor and stood on them, light filled the room again and in a short time the seven Knights of Sâl Arwydd were clad in the orichalcum armour of The Glorious 100. Angel had changed while they were in the light." Give me a moment," She asked them as she walked back in to the armoury, and looked in the archway. Sure enough her clothes were on the rack that her armour had been on, noting the empty racks
Angel walked back to the room with the crystals. Redknapp and Fowler were sparing with their new weapons. "Come on, we'd better follow the others."
"Was our armour back there?" Owens asked as they walked through the archway.
"No they weren't," Angel answered honestly.
"So what's happening to them?" Ince asked.
"I have no idea. I'm guessing something similar to what happened with our clothes when it happened last time."
"What was that?" Phil Nevil asked.
"I'm not 100% sure but the clothes went from being cheer leader outfits to something that stopped bullets and turned aside pretty much everything man made." Angel smiled at the memory of standing there with a wall of bullets forming in front of them," The Wachowski Sisters used something similar in the Matrix films with Neo."
"Did you have to hold out your hand? " said Phil, following on from his first question.
"Only to confuse the cultists" she answered.
"What about your weapons back then? " Redknapp asked.
"They seem to have been a more child friendly version of what we've ended up with now. Okay your turn to answer a question, that image of the red thing you have looked old, how recent was that?" Angel asked
"Very old, 1070 we think. What's called The Harrying Of The North." Owens replied
"What was that?" Angel looked confused.
"William The Conqueror didn't like it that the North of England didn't accept his invasion, a number of Northern Barons rebelled and William basically took his army and destroyed the North of the country, burning farms and villages wherever he went, portents and tall tales abound, but one of the things passed down was a drawing of the red creature, they have been a few others over time, mostly the war of the Steven and Matilda, the War Of The Roses, the Civil War, plenty of stories about King William in Ireland and the things that accompanied his army as well."
"We're limited with our Intelligence on this, we've got a sighting at Waterloo, around the Farm the British were trapped in, there was a battle in Spain that destroyed a village, that had a couple of big ones apparently and obviously there's tales of them in No Man's Land in World War 1 and a few sightings in Normandy on Omaha beach." Beckham sighed, admitting " I've not got around to Korea, the Falklands War, the Gulf or Afghanistan files. The older files are still on paper and even with our clearance getting them takes a while, and it's mostly army psychiatrist writing it up from a lone survivor here and there. As you can imagine there's a lot to wade through and piece together."
"Any reference to any of the golden things or the green things?" Angel asked as they walked down the tunnels.
"Nothing really, but based on a colour and where we were, I'd hazard a guess on Pride for the gold ones and probably envy for the green ones." Jamie suggested.
"Well the next Rift looks to be forming in Cancun, centred around an adult only hotel with clothing optional areas."
"So a sex spa?" Gary asked.
Angel held up her hands, "That's as much as I know, Kat and Claire went and had a look at the place, this is what they told me. Ask her for a more detailed report on it, and then there is a couple more forming, one in North Korea and one in East Africa. There is also something we'd like to ask as well. As you know our friend was taken over there."
"That who Claire was talking to?" David asked.
"Yes, well we have a plan. Claire wants to go through the next Scar and help get her, Morven, back. Now what we are asking is if any of you guys want to go across with her and help rescue our friend." Angel asked. "Kat should be asking Araceli and Lola the same thing, who'll go and ask the others in The Jaguars."
"Why aren't you all going?" Paul asked.
"Claire wouldn't hear it as I've got 3 kids, one is toddler, the others are *and* and Kat has 2 daughters and the thought of having all of us stuck over there and potentially leaving 5 kids without their mums was a sobering moment and we had to agree. So anyone with kids hands up." David, Phil Robbie, Paul and Jamie raised a hand," You're out of contention, Gary and Michael would you both think about it, please.? She's been fighting for 20 years, she's not alone, she's travelling with someone, all we know is she's called Beatrice and she's a fighter. We don't know what you'll face over there, we don't know how long we can keep the Rift open. We are asking for your help, do you want to be the untested new guy in shiny armour or are you willing to get those orichalcum suits dented and scratched?"
Gary and Michael looked at each other. Owens started first, "I'll need to talk to some people, Gary? "
"I'm up for it, I'll go." Gary nodded, looking at the floor and rolling his shoulders. He paused for a second, closed his eyes and looked like he was taking stock of himself. He paused briefly and reflected on how bad an idea this was going to be. Then hurried to catch up to everyone else before they went out of sight.
As he caught up, Angel was looking worriedly about the corridor. She pulled out her flip phone and touched the top crystal, "Okay can we have a whisp to follow to these Looms please, I'm lost down here."
"One moment." was The Warden's response, a whisp formed before them and circled the group, before leading them down a succession of corridors that Angel had never seen. She was pretty sure that this section of the complex hadn't been open to them when they'd first been coming here, and was ready to question if it had existed back then but was positive they'd not been in this bit.
They reached an archway and the whisp floated through and the group followed, not really sure what to expect on the other side. There was a large chamber, more like a cave with much rougher walls than the rest of the complex. The cave was lit by the usual strips. In the middle of the chamber, floating above an inscrutable device was Araceli's malachite green armour, around the gaps in the plates thousands of Orichalcum threads, glowing reddy gold were being threaded into the armour. The green plates glowed gold where the orichalcum was being threaded into the plates, Araceli was watching the gold line progress along the armour plates while Lola and Kat studied the loom. Some of the Knights watched with Araceli some joined Kat and Lola at the Loom. A number of large square pieces in various shades of dark grey lined the front nearest where everyone stood, each square had numerous sigils inscribed in them, 2 large black spikes that could have been spindles stood behind the keys, the armour floated between these. The orichalcum threads pulled from two hair thin golden threads stretching up from the spindles to the roof of the cave. Around the spindles, not really perceived was a dull numbus of gold.
"What's actually happening here?" Phil asked.
Araceli looked around, "The Warden told me that my armour is having the material that can channel the Earth Energy being threaded through the malachite, it'll give the wearer more protection and a greater ability to damage what's comes over from the other side. They'll not be as strong as this," she tapped her new weapon, "or this,", tapping the weapon on her armour, "but they'll do better than the mundane stuff or even the enhanced weapons we already have."
"And this Warden will do this with our armour as well?" Phil asked.
One of the whisps flashed, before it spoke, 'Yes, our settings will need to be adjusted to suit the manufacturer of your suits than the Jaguar suit I currently have on the loom."
The gold line on the suit reached the end of the arm and body pieces and the suit was transitioned and Owens suit replaced it. Several of the keys moved quickly, more moved as if in response to those moving, 3 different keys moved and 2 more responded to it. They settled in place and the spindles expanded and settled and thousands of golden threads, looking like fiber optic cables reached out to the armour and began to merge with it.
Araceli looked at the whisp, "My suit has been returned to the other room?" she asked it.
The whisp expanded into a flat surface and an image formed of the malachite green armour surrounded with orichalcum armour, "Yes it has been returned to the armoury, when you change back it will be what you are wearing."
AI art are from prompts related to the story, Destiny 2 screen shot is obviously from Bungie game Destiny 2.
