Chapter Text
(Side note: An Idol's name is never capitalized)
A tea set was placed in dollhouse-like fashion nearby. A young woman places her hands upon the tea kettle, from which a shining blue liquid pours from it onto the small porcelain cup. Placing the kettle down beside her she then picks up the small cup with both hands nestled underneath. Her hands were large and mechanical, but with utmost grace held the cup carefully as she took a sip. She places it down to notice a presence in front of her.
A young woman with long blue, straight hair stands near the wall as she enters. Her pale-lit eyes look straight forward even under her visor as she focused and presented herself to the other maiden. Poised she replies. "My queen I apologize for the interruption, but there is a new developing update regarding the Valkyrian prophet's whereabouts."
The queen smiles. "Ahh dearest grey was found, yes? How fortunate! Where might I ask?"
The visored woman responds quickly. "Near Atlas. Not directly in the city, but close to the small collective towns. With your permission I would like to send armed forces to bring her in." The queen ponders, but does not break her smile. She giggles slightly as she replies. "Not yet dear cuff. As eager as you are to arrest her, I am merely curious how far she'll go at her current state. She has a bounty and a reputation, yes, but without proper outside help she is but a lone wolf. She will not convince anyone in Atlas to help her. They would just call her a heretic and execute her. There. Your job would be done for you! Wouldn't that be fun?"
The visored woman only nods and bows in response. "By your will, and by the will and name of both Asgard and Themis." She then turns around to leave. As the door clicks the queen once again grabs her "tea." She takes one sip to then place it back down once more. She walks behind her chair to look out the tall, mosaic glass. The glass depicts a being of red and blue, holding a mighty sword with reflecting light coming down upon collective of people. Within the chassis of the being was a angular ring around what looked to be a radiant gem. The queen looks directly at it with reverence. "My dear Asgard, brave and true, may your will lead my people and smite my enemies. Great Idolon of the world and beyond... Bring her to me. Bring me my stray lamb."
The desert sun beamed down dryly on the flat sands as four large vehicles drive by. A stout man drives the front convoy with sweat washing down his face. He huffs in irritation as he wipes his brow. "Fucking hate how damn hot these runs are. Can't they just start having us do this at night!? I'm losing fluids over here for crying out loud!"
A passenger near him only responds with a "hmm" as she sits and stares out the window. Her face and eyes covered with a silver cowl, not once staring back at the man. She watches the unchanging scenery outside blankly. How much longer till they get there? She was told the estimated time wasn't god-awful, but it feels like an eternity since she first took off with the convoy. She offered them a pretty penny to help her get into Atlas in some way. Though credits can only do so much if your bounty was higher than what you paid for in help. Her covered arms and legs pushed down so nobody can notice the one thing that could give her away. She wouldn't want to kill these idiots and her one shot inside the city. Would be too much of a headache in the long run, but at least she could get her credits back if she takes them back.
The man then turns to her. "Hey babe you haven't said shit this whole run! What gives? Shy sweetheart? Or you thinking your too above talking to ole' Rick here, huh?"
"I just don't like talking. That simple." She responds coldly.
He tsk'd on that answer. He keeps his eyes back on the road, but felt that the woman next to him didn't deserve the last word.
"Look sweetheart, don't know what your deal is but we're risking our asses out here getting you into this city. They don't like strays at all and that's exactly what ya are. They don't even like us delivery men, but they gotta deal with it for their blue shipments. Not to mention the rumors about a "desert demon" slinking around stealing Bio Blue and killing mass amounts of dudes like me. So how bout you at least tell me what your grand plan here is, huh?"
The woman rolls her red eyes in annoyance. "I just want in the city. There is no "grand plan" if that's what you were hoping, sir."
"For a chick who don't talk much your mouth really annoys me ya know that? Fine! Keep your damn secrets!" Rick growled. His curiosity was certainly going to be the death of him if this was kept up. He then took a quick glance at her when given the chance from his driving. "You ain't hot in all those layers? You're gonna get a heat stroke in all that!"
"I'm fine. Keep your eyes on the road."
"You don't get to tell me what to keep my eyes on! What is all this shit on you anyways? Got some messed up scars or something you don't want folks looking?"
The woman shoves herself further into the door and window to try to ignore him. Irritated by this, Rick grabs her arm and trying to roll off the fabrics. The woman then tries to swiftly pull her arm back as the fabric unfolds, revealing a long, robotic arm. The man is shocked as he grabs to wheel back to keep himself steady and to not go off the path.
"THE HELL? Are ya some kind of !?" He yelled. The woman then glare him down from her cowl, slightly revealing her face. He slowly realizes he's seen that face before on a wanted poster back in town. Talk spreads about an mechanization that's been going from military outposts killing soldiers from each city-state. No word was given as to what the motivation was, but it certainly put the fear into humans from the small towns around the city-states themselves. Especially if you involve yourself in those said city-states.
"Wait you... You're that soldier hunter we've been warned about! gravy...No grey ain't it? You're in a shit ton of trouble! If anything you just doubled my pay to turn your robotic butt in!"
He then takes one hand off the wheel to grab a small pistol from behind his seat. He quickly positions it near her eyes to shot as she quickly grabs his arm around and turns the pistol to fire it back on his forehead. He accidently triggers it and shots himself between the eyes as the bullet goes through his head onto the window splattering blood and a large crack towards it. grey then quickly kicks the door and then kicks the now dead man outside the moving vehicle, taking control on the convoy herself now.
"Not my plan, but I can work with this." She says to herself.
The convoys behind witness their dead boss fly off the vehicle behind them. They all speed up to catch the sides of the first convoy to investigate. grey takes her robotic heels to kick the gas pedal as hard as she possibly could. She didn't have time to deal with more morons. The speed was slowly creeping up to get a move on. It seemed the convoy could only get so far in mph. Not made for car chases obviously.
One vehicle finally catches up near the window, but could not see through due to the crack and blood covering it. "PULL OVER!" Shouted the second convoy driver.
grey, annoyed, swerved the wheel to the left where the other vehicle caught up, bumping hard into it to lose it. It did not dissuade the convoy driver as he then pushes back onto the first convoy, causing a huge dent to grey's truck. The back and forth kept up for quite a bit until the convoy driver got pissed and pulled out his pistol, attempting to shoot at the bloody window at a chance to shoot whoever was causing the chaos.
Three shots were fired as the window finally breaks revealing grey as she squints her eyes angerly at the driver across. The man prepares for a fourth shot until his truck gets smashed down by an unknown, but quick force. grey, puzzled, looks back as she continues driving to catch a glimpse of whatever the hell just happened. What even happened? It was quick, but looked like something huge fell on top of the truck? Like a rock? No, it wouldn't be a rock there aren't any boulders nearby since it was an empty desert area. The sand and dust certainly didn't help with the viewing as it obscured her visions.
She looks back in front of her with a long inhale-to-exhale. She didn't even sense the two other trucks that were behind the second driver either? That was odd. Something wasn't right. After taking some more breaths in she looked out once again. Nothing in her visions yet again. She almost sighed a relief until a sudden earthquake-like force caused her to notice the truck at a standstill. She had her foot on the gas still why wasn't she moving? It took a split second to realize the truck was being lifted upwards.
She tried to focus her visions to see what mighty force could even being doing such a thing? No way a crane or something in that matter could lift something quickly at the speeds she was going inside the vehicle. The dust starts to clear out slowly as she notices the it wasn't a crane, but a massively tall being. They slowly lifted the convoy with grey inside as she started to get a better look at this said being. It was long, silver, and slender. Spikes covered multiple outlets of it's mechanically like body. Notably they were similar to hers. If anything...They were hers? The legs and arms almost identically the same as her limbs. Same spike ridges, same claws. She started to realize and remember. She's met this being before.
The "creature" finally moves the truck towards their faceplate, staring grey down with similar red optics. The being finally speaks with a slight scowl. Voice sharp as a knife.
"Ah, fancy meeting you here. It's been awhile."