#mod shads

The planet of Aerth before and after the Shattered World Crisis are not exactly the same. Certain chunks of land had found themselves in an altered spot from where they had once been after the world was put back together.

A notable example of this is the nation of Mobotropolis.

Before the world had broken apart in late 2007, the land that the nation had stood on was an archipelago. A very large archipelago, but still an archipelago nonetheless. But a year later when the world had finally been restored, the land that made up Mobotropolis was now suddenly connected to the lands of the United Federation and Holoska!

While it was a shock to the citizens of the three nations, the change in land placement really didn't make as many changes to the world as one would expect, given that the three nations were already semi-unified with one another via the United Nations organization. In fact, the event was deemed to be one worthy of celebration!

One of the ways that this celebration had taken place was the building of a strip mall that served as an intermingling point between the Mobotropolis town of Spiral Hill and the United Federation town of Starlight City. Being given the name of "[The] StarSpiral Mall", businesses and business startups from both towns were invited to set up shop within.

One of these shops was a pawn shop that was originally made by a pair of pigeon mobians; brothers Reginald and Benson Cadere. They were both rather young at the time of the shop's founding, being 24 and 23 years old respectively. Growing up in the small village of Spiral Hill as immigrants from Spagonia meant that the two often couldn't afford the things they wanted, and sometimes even needed. Their parents lived paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes they would need to find side jobs just to be able to pay for both their bills and their children's needs. Neither of them wanted to live that life anymore, so once they had both graduated from college, they agreed to create a business together, so that they would now be able to call the shots on the money they would have.

A year went by, and the pawn shop was a big success. Benson very much enjoyed running the shop. He liked going out and finding new rare and strange items to sell, he liked talking to the customers, he even liked sorting through business emails. Reginald on the other hand… Was not as invested in the shop. During the year that had passed, the extra money and time away from studying made Reginald realize that business was not his passion after all, but instead, his passion was photography. Benson supported his big brother in this passion, and set aside revenue from the shop to be saved up for getting Reginald a camera.

Soon enough, the camera and related equipment was bought, and Reginald finally moved out of the pawn shop building, ready to travel the world and capture all sorts of exotic sights.

Despite the distance, the two did still talk often through text and calls. This is how Benson had found out that Reginald had decided to come back into town for a while, and that while he was traveling about Starlight City, he had run into a beautiful maiden that he intended to take on a date. Benson was happy to hear this news, and offered Reginald to come by the pawn shop and say hello.

But Reginald would never do such.

Only almost three years after the pawn shop was founded, one of its founders was… gone.

The maiden that he had gone out with was an infamous one. 

Wilma Brevair, a fox mobian known by many for the vast list of men that she had dated, and then had disappeared shortly after.

It would seem that Reginald was, sadly, one of these many men.

Benson only found this out via the news a few days later, he had already been too late to even possibly save his beloved older brother.

But…

It wasn't too late to avenge him.

For a few days straight, Benson had abruptly closed the pawn shop in order to orchestrate his plan of attack against Ms Brevair. He looked through piles and piles of items he and Reginald had collected to be sold in the shop, trying desperately to find whatever he could use as a weapon against the woman who he very much believed had killed his brother. As he did, he ended up finding a strange necklace that had wound up in the pile of items. It was huge, and very heavy, and the center of the charm almost seemed to glow slightly. Benson put it aside to sell it later, figuring that it wouldn't serve any use in his revenge, but could serve to help him stay afloat financially after the days of being closed.

Eventually, he was able to fashion a sort of dagger out of various items in the store - but by the time he had done such, it was very late into the night, and he would unfortunately have to wait a little longer to get his revenge. He took this truth in stride, and headed off to bed, telling himself that he would finally confront Wilma in the morning. 

It didn't matter what would happen after that. It didn't matter if Benson went to court, it didn't matter if he went to jail, it didn't even matter if he was given the death sentence. Reginald didn't deserve the fate he was given. It wasn't right that he was gone and Wilma was still alive. Benson would make it right. He swore that he would.

But he would wake up much sooner than planned.

As he groggily pulled himself out of bed, Benson noticed that the necklace he had found earlier was now on his doorstep. Even though he remarked to himself how classic-horror-movie-like it was, he approached the doorway.

Something compelled him to take the necklace and wear it around his own neck, despite how large and hefty it was. The charm dragged on the floor as he tried to get some sort of handle on the situation.

But suddenly… A thought had come to him.

"... Could it be…?" He muttered. "Even the spirits beyond are begging me to put an end to that twisted maiden's reign of terror…?"

But as those words left his mouth, he immediately began to feel extremely disoriented. His vision quickly faded, and he had fallen on the floor in a matter of seconds.

Before he completely lost consciousness, he heard a voice speak. It was dark, foreboding, and worst of all, passive-aggressive.

 "Wrong answer."

———————————————————————————————

A few minutes later, the pigeon's eyes slowly, but surely opened up once more, and when they did, they saw a pair of ghostly women, looking down at it in concern.

"Hey! Are you all good or do ya need a bit?" The ghost on the left asked, peering over the body in a nonchalant way, despite her tone of voice.

"I think we might have to give it some time, Mama… The way he went about all this was… Very risky. Impulsive, even…" The ghost on the right proclaimed, looking to the ghost on the left.

"Heh. Guess we have a knack for that, hmm?" The ghost on the left remarked, now turning her gaze to the other ghost.

"I don't think I would call it a "knack", given that such impulsive behavior was the cause of our demises…" The ghost on the right argued as she placed her hands on her hips to emphasize her pouty tone.

"... Yeah." The ghost of the left sighed in defeat.

"Sendrir… Tea… Thank you for your concern." A voice said to them via the pigeon's body as it began to stand up. "But I promise you both, I am perfectly fi-" Suddenly, the sound of a crack was heard. Immediately, the pigeon's body hunched over, hand placed on the edge of a nearby table. "ine…" The voice concluded through gritted teeth.

"Wow! You've been in that body for a solid minute and a half and you've already thrown its back out!" Sendrir loudly remarked in a teasing manner, grinning widely as she peered over him once again.

"How… did you manage to throw out the back of a twenty-something year old..?" Tea added, placing her ghostly hand on his shoulder in consolidation despite her confusion.

"This amulet was tailor made for a body much larger than this one… It is not my fault that by comparison it is incredibly heavy…" Doom grumbled as he tried to keep themself stabilized within this body.

"Well, if that is what you want, then may I ask what your plan is from here?" Tea responded quite genuinely, quickly backing away from Doom in order to give them space.

"Oh yeah, that is a good question!" Sendrir agreed. "Like, how long do you even plan on being in that body, anyways?" She then questioned, pointing to the pigeon mobian body that Doom was currently inhabiting.

"As long as I need to. This is all for Widow's protection. If I had not stepped in, she would have been attacked." Doom explained quite bluntly as he finally got himself standing up straight once more.

"Guess that's true. She seems to be the last of us OG leaders still kickin, since I heard from Lillian that it seems like Death and Vladdie kicked the bucket too a few years back. She can't end up like the rest of us." Sendrir elaborated, leaning back through the air, still carrying on her nonchalant tone - though perhaps now in order to hide her grief.

"Exactly." Doom said, nodding.

Suddenly, Tea let out a disappointed sigh.

"What's wrong kiddo?" Sendrir inquired, sitting up to face her daughter.

"If only I had a body to possess like Doom… Then I could make him some tea… Help him acclimate into this body…" Tea lamented, looking into the distance.

"Oh yeah, Doom can't drink the ghost realm tea now that he's in a body again. Should've figured that'd be the case…" Sendrir remarked with a shrug.

"Hmph… There must be a coffee shop or a restaurant open around here somewhere…" Doom surmised, scratching his chin to signal them thinking as he began to pace about the room.

"Or at least a fast food joint!" Sendrir mentioned.

"I hope we don't have to settle for that…" Tea muttered to herself, wincing at the thought.

"What time is it, anyway? Surely it can't be that early…" Doom wondered, stopping his actions and turning to face the two ghostly women in his company.

"... 1:49 am. 5 hours from sunrise." Tea answered, looking at and pointing to the clock on the nightstand next to the bed.

"... Of course." Doom groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Fast food it is, then!" Sendrir exclaimed. She could tell that her statement brought annoyance to Tea and to Doom to a lesser extent. "Unless you two have any other ideas?"

"I'm sure this person has a fridge, no?" Tea suggested, seemingly bewildered by how they hadn't thought of that before.

"Ah. We really should check that first and foremost… Thank you, Tea." Doom responded happily, opening the door to leave the bedroom.

"You're welcome!" Tea replied as she and Sendrir followed him from behind.

———————————————————————————————

As it turns out, there was quite a lot of food in the fridge, and more in the freezer above it. With it being so early in the morning at the time, Doom simply grabbed one of the microwave meals out of the freezer and heated it up to eat. Tea of course had her complaints about how such a thing wasn't good for the body, even saying that it would've been better just to get fast food, but Doom promised her that he would make something more nutritious later into the day.

But after opening up the pawn shop at seven in the morning, Doom realized that he would not be able to keep that promise. Almost immediately, customers began to come through, making Doom have to always be alert and ready to assist at a moment's notice. It was no wonder then that Benson had so many of those microwave meals readily available within the freezer, between helping customers with finding items within the store, to checking customers out, to handling trade-ins, and keeping track of the money in the cash register, there simply was no time to make a "full" fresh meal! At least, certainly not for breakfast.

But things began to die down around noon. Not as many customers were entering the shop by then. Finally, it would seem, Doom had a moment to breathe.

"About time! Things weren't this hectic even back during the revolution on PetalBloom for fucks sake!" Sendrir exclaimed in an exasperated tone, lounging her ghostly form upon one of the shelves attached to the shop's walls.

"Really? From the stories you've told me, I always imagined it to be far more of a rush than this." Tea questioned curiously, "sitting" on the same shelf that Sendrir laid on.

"Heh. Guess I do like to over exaggerate things to ya, kiddo…" Sendrir remarked with a sigh.

"Hmph... If you ask me, I'd say it is rather even." Doom interjected into the conversation, calmly wiping down the checkout counter with a relaxed smile. "You both were a bit late to the whole affair anyways, so you do not necessarily have much ground to stand on, one could easily surmise…" He added in a joking tone as they went over to the sink to ring out the towel he had been using for cleaning. At the very least, that and the fridge were just right behind the countertop. That made things more manageable for Doom. Not to mention how right across from the fridge were the steps leading up to the bedroom. Everything was essentially right within reach. As they should be.

"Yeah, by like, a few hours?? A day if you don't wanna count until I actually showed my ass up at Lillian's place?? Sorry that my dad wanted to keep me from doing basically anything other than run his stupid fuckin' restaurant!" Sendrir argued, her tone just as equally laid-back and non serious as Doom's.

"Was I even born yet when you two first met?? I don't remember!" Tea inquired, an amused giggle coming from her as a backing track to every word she spoke.

"Of course you don't remember. You were an infant." Doom answered simply, turning to face her as he was looking through the cupboards for any food that could be prepared.

The two ladies immediately began to laugh hysterically. They probably would have caused every single item on the shelf they were on to come crashing to the floor if it weren't for the fact that their ghostly bodies were unable to interact with physical objects.

But as quickly as the laughing started, it had stopped, for there was once again a customer. Four of them to be exact. 

A tiger mobian with brown fur, yellow eyes, and very short hair - a lemur mobian with light gray fur, purple eyes, and big fluffy hair done up in a pair of buns - a wolf mobian with pale yellow fur, her eyes too narrowed and hidden in the shadow of her mask to see their eye color, and her hair in a ponytail - and a beetle mobian with light blue skin and an iridescent outer shell that resembled neck-length hair who had pink eyes. One after another, they all filed into the pawn shop and began to look around, frequently gazing over the sections of the small shop that was nearby the windows.

"Is there anything I can help you four with?" Doom asked, quickly returning to pretending that he was Benson.

"Nah! Just searchin’!" The lemur responded without even turning to face him, her tone being very informal, and her voice being quite… loud. Like Sendrir's, in a way, but far less charming than when she does it.

"Awww… You think I'm charming~?" Sendrir teasingly inquired, teleporting herself from laying on the shelf to leaning up against Doom.

"In a way, yes. Save your flirtatious flattery until after work, please." Doom replied plainly through the hivemind, trying to hide his blushing cheeks.

"Ah… Mom, Lord Doom, may I ask a question of you two?" Tea soon asked as she watched the four teenagers wander aimlessly about the store.

"What's up kiddo?" Sendrir replied, perking her head up towards Tea as she took note of her serious tone.

"If I remember correctly, you two told me that Widow's disguise form was that of a purple and pink fox mobian, yes? Often seen wearing "old fashioned" dresses and carrying a parasol that conceals her trusty blade?" Tea inquired further.

"Yeah, you've got that description down pat, hun. Why? … You think you see her?" Sendrir responded, flying through the air to relocate herself next to Tea instead of Doom, so she could get the same view Tea had been getting.

"Indeed I do. But not only that. I… hypothesize that these visitors of ours are following her for some reason. They are not here to actually buy anything, but to simply make their attempts at stalking unknown…" Tea elaborated, gesturing to the group of teenaged mobians below her and Sendrir in distress.

Doom couldn't help but overhear the conversation between the two ladies and looked out the window that was nearest to him. Just like that, there she was, the one the Aerthlings call "Wilma Brevair" - Black Doom's beloved wife, Black Widow, walking down the street with her son - Doom's son, Garrick. As the group of teenagers looked around the shop, they would take turns at seeing where Widow would go. Their gaze was obvious to Doom. A hunter's gaze, tracking down their prey. A million thoughts began to rush into Doom's mind in a single moment. He has to stop them, he can't let them hurt her. But he can't, too many people might see whatever it is they might do. If he attacked the girls in this body he would surely be arrested, if he left this body to try to possess one of the girls, Benson could very well run off and hurt Widow instead. He can't possess all of them, not even with Sendrir and Tea's help would he have enough. Something would be loose, someone could get away, something would go wrong. It was hopeless, wasn't it? He couldn't do anything. Just like back then. Fighting Shadow. They should've never fought Shadow. He was too wrapped up in his emotions to put up a proper fight. He was too emotional to realize he should've never fought it at all. Too broken. Too shocked. He took out all the hurt and anger and heartbreak he felt and had used Shadow as a punching bag because Gerald had died long ago. He never actually wanted to hurt Shadow, looking back. It was just too much, it was all just too much. It's too much again, he felt trapped again. But now on top of everything else he also so desperately was trying to get a fucking hold of himself so they didn't ruin everything again like last time-

"HEY!! IT. WILL. BE. FINE!!!" Sendrir suddenly yelled, hovering over Doom in a manner that highly suggested that if she still had a physical body, she would be shaking Doom at that very moment.

"I-I have a plan, if you're willing to hear it…" Tea added, trying to get things back on track.

Doom took a moment to respond, startled by Sendrir and still haunted by intrusive thoughts of how everything will go wrong no matter what. But after about thirty seconds, he nodded.

"Take deep breaths, bud…" Sendrir muttered to Doom in an attempt to comfort him, placing her hands on his shoulders the best she could.

"We might not be able to stop them entirely… But we can take measures to slow these girls down in their pursuit. Try striking up a conversation…" Tea calmly suggested. "See that one there?" She then pointed at the wolf mobian, "What is that strange mechanism that she's got with her? Ask her about it. It seems like it would be complex enough to hold a decent conversation about it, no?" Doom noticed what Tea was talking about. Being held by the wolf mobian in a manner similar to that of a cane at the present moment, she had on her a device that resembled a sniper rifle, though it differed from a usual sniper in the fact that it had no scope - and had a pair of matching half circles towards the front of the weapon that looked as if it contained some sort of strange energy within it. He couldn't help but be intrigued by it, and that intrigue, in an odd way, helped him calm down.

"Pardon me, miss, but may I ask about that device you have with you…?" He asked of the wolf mobian.

"Are you… talking to me…?" The wolf questioned, seemingly a rather shy and reserved type of person - to which Doom could relate.

"Indeed I am… I didn't mean to bother you, I was just curious about it… I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it." Doom answered in a calm tone, causing the wolf mobian to seemingly trust him enough to turn around to face him directly, rather than looking off to the side like she had been before - probably having her eye on Widow…

A success…

"This is my wispon… I use it to utilize the powers of my wisps while in combat…" She explained quite simply, presenting the "wispon" to Doom's gaze in a manner that seemed rather prideful, in an innocent sort of way. Like a young child showing a parent their drawing.

"What… is a wisp?" Doom asked, both to continue the conversation and out of genuine curiosity, not knowing what such a thing could be.

"Oh, I forgot that not everyone knows what they are…" The wolf remarked to herself, seeming to be embarrassed as she looked away again. But before Doom's nerves could get worked up again, she looked back at him. "Wisps are small little creatures that can fuse with a person, or a specially made object like this wispon here, to grant them a certain power up depending on what kind of wisp is used… I-I'd show you what it looks like, but I don't have my wisps with me right now..! They're getting treated for an illness they all came down with recently, a-at a clinic in the main part of Starlight City…! Doctor Ezrieal Clysdale i-is the name of the doctor that runs the place- I-I'm sure that they'd be willing to tell you more if you paid them a visit…!" She elaborated, seeming to become more excited as the conversation went on. It was clear to Doom that this was something that the girl was rather passionate about. He wanted to ask more. Honestly, not even for the plan anymore. He liked seeing the passion in the wolf's eyes and hearing it in her voice as she spoke. It reminded him of themself.

But despite how much either one of them wanted to keep talking, the wolf was pulled away by her friends, and the four of them left the store.

"Hey. You did a good job. As I said, my plan wasn't going to stop them completely… I knew that. But we slowed them down. We did what we could… I know Widow would understand if she knew." Tea said to Doom, appearing behind him as she seemingly could already tell that Doom was beginning to succumb to his thoughts again.

"The kid's right, you know. Sometimes life just puts ya in the shitter, and the best you can do doesn't feel like it's enough. But it is. Because it's your best. And you can't give any better than your best." Sendrir chimed in, sitting down on the floor behind the counter. Doom slumped down and joined her, grasping the legs of this pigeon body within its arms.

"I think you should close up shop for now… Give yourself some time to rest, okay?" Tea suggested, making her way over to the counter.

Doom nodded, getting up to do such.

"Think you can let Tea occupy that body, maybe so she can brew you some of her namesake?" Sendrir added, still sitting on the floor.

"Uhm… No offense Mama but… We can't possess non Black Arms bodies like that. We don't have the capability, I'm afraid." Tea interjected, sounding rather sullen, as she did indeed like the thought.

"Dammit." Sendrir cursed, "Well, make yourself some tea anyway. You need it." She then said, rephrasing her previous statement to Doom.

"I will…" Doom muttered, finally returning to the countertop after lingering upon the action of flipping the store sign for a prolonged amount of time.

"I can help guide you through the process if you'd like." Tea offered, appearing at Doom's side, arm wrapped around his shoulder.

"I'd like that…" He responded, accepting the offer.

———————————————————————————————

About fifteen minutes had passed since Doom had closed up the shop. The tea kettle on the stove was just starting to quietly whistle, communicating that the water inside was almost ready, but not quite completely at the exact temperature needed. The tea bag was placed on the checkout counter, ready to be placed in the water once it was hot enough. It was a moment of calm that Doom very much needed, but was soon interrupted by a knock at the front door.

"Geez… Don't people know how to read signs??" Sendrir scoffed, rolling her eyes in annoyance as she was once again laying on one of the shop's shelves.

Doom was just about to agree with her, but when he turned to see who it was knocking at the door, he immediately realized that it was his very own beloved wife Widow, and their son Garrick.

Looking down from their spots among the shelves, Sendrir and Tea quickly noticed this too - and also noticed that Doom was unsure of how to approach the situation.

"Uhm… Keep going with the disguise for now?? See what she's here for and then we can maybe figure things out in more detail afterwards??" Tea hesitantly suggested, also unsure of what would be the best approach.

Doom silently nodded, agreeing to the idea, and opened the front door to allow Widow and Garrick to enter.

"Please pardon my interruption - I know that the sign says that you're closed right now… But I fear that my dear son and I are being stalked, and I don't feel safe to go back to my residence at the current moment…" Widow explained in a hush tone, constantly looking behind her as she spoke.

"I see. Please do come in." Doom quickly responded, gesturing the two to step further within the shop as he closed and subsequently locked the door behind them.

"Oh thank you, you're too kind." Widow remarked with a smile, closing her parasol and placing it at the foot of the checkout counter. "I don't know why… but I just had the feeling I'd be safe in here… I suppose I was right!" She added.

It would seem that she had no idea that the pigeon mobian that stood before her at this moment was her late husband. Although he had the thought of telling her outright for a moment, the thought went away as soon as it came - Doom worrying that if he did try to explain the situation to Widow, she would think that they were lying to her in order to trick it in some way. For now, he decided to continue the facade, and leave it up to Widow herself to possibly discover the truth. After all, all that truly mattered to Doom was that Widow was safe from harm.

Now that she was, for now, safe - Doom began to allow himself to get a proper look at Widow's mobian disguise. A fox mobian with deep purple fur that extended out into hair that was pulled into a low ponytail save for her bangs which gently laid up on one side of her face. Her irises were the vibrant bright purple with an outer ring of hot pink that Doom had always known and loved, but her sclera were white now instead of yellow, and her other three eyes were nowhere to be seen - which is understandable given how mobians always have only two eyes. Seemingly to compensate for losing over fifty percent of her eyes in the disguise, Widow wore a pair of large round glasses. They suited her quite well. She also wore a long pale lilac dress that had a white collar at the chest area, a matching lilac bowtie that wrapped around the collar of the dress, a maroon coat over the dress, a pair of short mid-heeled boots that matched both the dress and coat in color, and a belt wrapped around her waist that pulled the entire outfit together. She was absolutely gorgeous.

"Ah, pardon me, but I do believe the water in your tea kettle is ready." Widow informed Doom as the now loud and clear sound of the kettle whistling became perceived by him.

"Right, of course. Let me go deal with that real quick…" Doom replied, his cheeks beginning to burn up from embarrassment, which was only made worse by the sound of Sendrir cackling like a maniac in response to the situation, even if it was quickly stopped by Tea.

Even if it was brief, the sudden sound echoed into Widow's mind through the hivemind, and she began to look around for what the source might have been. But when she didn't find anything or anyone that the laughter could have come from, she ended up just assuming it was her imagination and shrugged it off, going back to finding herself and Garrick chairs to sit in.

Soon enough, the tea had been prepared, being portioned out into three cups, one placed on the employee side of the checkout counter for Doom, and two placed on the customer side of the countertop for Widow and Garrick.

"I can't help but notice how… familiar you seem to me." Widow suddenly exclaimed once everything had been set.

"Is… Is that so?" Doom inquired, taking a sip of tea to hide his cheeks, which were once again blushing.

"Oh, but of course! Now that I think about it, I do believe I went out on a date with your brother recently, if I'm remembering correctly, that is… Does the name "Reginald Cadere" ring a bell to you?" Widow responded, once again completely unaware of Doom's presence, despite what seemed like an indication of her knowledge coming from her just a moment ago. She innocently took a sip of tea.

"O-oh… Yes, that would indeed be my brother…!!" Doom awkwardly answered, having almost forgotten for a moment there that he was disguised at all, let alone who's body it was that he was possessing.

"Well, my apologies for his disappearance… I'm sure that must be hard on you…" Widow said, a gesture that Doom could tell wasn't genuine - she just didn't want him to suspect her of anything. Wow, she really was unaware of his presence, huh…?

"Oh, don't apologize! I-It's not like you're the one responsible!" Doom replied, trying his best to keep the conversation going as if they were Benson. 

But the response caused Widow to tense up slightly, clearly misinterpreting him to have been accusing her. 

"Real smooth." Sendrir quietly remarked in a sarcastic tone, as if Doom wasn't embarrassed enough on his own.

"Thank you for the tea, Mister!" Garrick exclaimed, bringing the conversation back on track as he happily sipped from his cup.

"Oh, why thank you, young man…!" Doom replied, happily taking the opportunity for a new conversation topic.

"I must agree with you, Garrick. The tea is simply wonderful… It reminds me of the tea an old friend of mine would make for me and my late husband…!" Widow added, taking in the soft steam that wafted from the cup in her hands.

"Is that so…?" Doom inquired, hoping that going further down the road of reminiscing might lead them to a point where Widow would realize who she was talking to as he took another sip of tea.

"Indeed… She had gotten swept up in that alien invasion just like my husband… She had been with her mother at the time, who I was also quite close to… I miss all three of them dearly…" Widow elaborated, her tone now achingly sincere, especially given how the spirits of those she missed were right there in the room with her - but she just didn't know it. "I've been dealing with the whole grieving thing a lot better as of late… It was hard to not feel lonely when it was just Garrick and I in a little apartment in Westopolis… But now that we're living with a new friend of ours in Starlight City, things seem a lot less bleak…" She continued after having had another sip of tea.

"Well that's great to hear…!" Doom replied, feeling genuinely happy to hear that things were going well for his beloved. "Who is this new friend of yours, if I may ask?" He then asked, quite curious to know.

"Ah! Their name is Doctor Ezrieal Clysdale! They run the wisp clinic in Ebony Avenue - though, there aren't any wisp clinics in all of Starlight City aside from theirs, so I probably shouldn't need to specify so much! … They really are such a kind, smart, and talented fellow…" Widow answered happily, pausing in between her sentences to keep on drinking her cup of tea.

"Well funny enough, this isn't the first time I'm hearing of this "Clysdale" person today!" Doom exclaimed, by this point just letting the conversation flow naturally.

"Is that so?" Widow replied, her eyes sparkling with intrigue as she took another sip.

"This young lady that had come into the shop earlier with her friends had told me that her own wisps were being treated at their clinic." Doom answered. "... I might have been seeing things incorrectly, but now that I'm putting the pieces together, I think that the girl and her friends were the ones that had been stalking you, unfortunately…" They then added, concluding in his mind that Widow deserved to have such information with her. It could serve quite useful if those girls decided to keep going at it, he figured.

"Oh goodness…! I'm not sure what ol' Ezzy could do…. aside from banning them from visiting the clinic in the future, but I'll let them know that." Widow responded, clearly considering the thought for a moment of this "Ezrieal" person actually being able to do more than just a simple ban.

Who was this "Ezrieal Clysdale" anyway? Doom wondered. How could he not, now that they had been brought up to him twice in the same day. Were they a regular mobian that Widow had either tricked or threatened into letting her live with them? A mobian that she had genuinely befriended, meaning that they were either slated for assimilation or had already been assimilated into the Black Arms? Or maybe… perhaps… A fellow refugee Black Arms? At first, Doom had dismissed the thought, not remembering anyone outside of Widow, Garrick, and Tea's partner Justice that had survived the failed invasion of Aerth back in 2005. But then they remembered about the New Black Comet that had been piloted by Black Death and Vladmira. When Sendrir and Tea ran into the spirits of Death and Vladmira some time ago, they had found out through them that the New Black Comet had been destroyed by the Aerthling government, and that the number of survivors from it were likely in the single digits. But that still meant that there were survivors. Could it be that perhaps this "Ezrieal Clysdale" was in fact one of these survivors…? Doom hoped to get the chance to one day find out.

"Speaking of Ez, I'm sure that they're just worried sick waiting for us…!" Widow said as she got up from her seat, having finished her tea.

"Awww… Are we really leaving so soon, Mama?" Garrick questioned, looking up at Widow with big ol puppy dog eyes.

"I'm sure we'll come back here another day if you really want to, okay?" Widow told him, gently patting him on the head.

"Are you sure it's safe for you to be leaving now?" Doom questioned in concern, grabbing Widow her parasol despite his words beckoning her to stay.

"It's been about thirty minutes now, I'm sure those girls have given up and gone home by now…" Widow surmised, gracefully taking her parasol from Doom's hands.

"Ah… I see." For a moment, Doom felt saddened by the fact that Widow was leaving so soon, and that she had never realized that it was Doom that she had been talking with in that time. But he thought it over for a moment, and revised his tune to a happier melody. They had found out that Widow was doing relatively well for herself, living close by to his current location, and was living with a potential survivor of the destruction of the New Black Comet. That amounts to a rather successful day, in Doom's eyes.

"I can't help but linger on her comment about the tea…" Tea mumbled joyfully, appearing at Doom's side once Widow and Garrick had left.

"I did a pretty good job following your instructions, it would seem." Doom responded feeling rather proud of himself.

"Indeed you did!" 

"So, what's the plan now, Doomie-boy?" Sendrir questioned, appearing at the side of Doom that was opposite to Tea.

"... I will open the shop back up for the rest of the day. During the night, I think I will look further into Widow's current living situation, given how she so kindly gave me the street that she lives on. What happens next… Should be left to a future version of myself to plan for." Doom answered, finishing the last of his tea while he cleaned up the checkout countertop.

———————————————————————————————

Surprisingly enough, after all that had occurred in the early part of the day, the rest of it had gone over quite smoothly. There hadn’t even been any complaints about Doom closing the store for the day about an hour earlier than when Benson would.

For this, Doom was incredibly grateful. He would be needing all of the energy that can be provided to them for his planned midnight outing.

The clock on the nightstand read 12:30 in the morning when Doom had awoken - a bit later than he had planned for, but with something like this, he figured that there was no true reason to be so ridged with such things as “scheduling”, for the night was his completely.

The trip to Widow’s residence was a bit harder than he had anticipated. Even with the street lights that dotted the roads, it was not very easy to clearly see what was road and what was sidewalk in the darkness of the night, let alone the words on the street signs. This mortal mobian body was clearly not equipped for seeing in the dark, and despite Doom’s godly nature, there was not much that he could do to remedy that fact.

Despite this, he kept to his determination and pushed through these struggles, eventually finding himself on Ebony Avenue, just as he wanted. But his search was not over just yet, no no, they still needed to figure out which one of these buildings was the one that his beloved wife called home.

Choosing to inspect the buildings on what he perceived as the right side of the street first by sneaking his way through the backyards, he at first had no results. But as he switched to the other side of the street, he noticed a building that still had some of its lights on, namely the room that was closest to the front porch of the building, which caught Doom’s attention. Walking closer to the building revealed more of its details, which were illuminated by the lights of the rooms within. The most striking of these details was a sign that hung above the roof of the front porch that read “Doctor Clysdale’s Wisp Care Clinic”.

This was the place.

Doom began to slowly walk down one of the sides of the building, looking through the windows for any sign of Widow.

Soon enough, he did indeed find his beloved, sleeping comfortably in one of the rooms that did not have the lights on, towards the rear end of the building. She was still in her mobian body, probably for just in case there was some sort of emergency where she would not have the time to transform, or if there were to be a break in. Regardless, she still looked absolutely stunning, the soft smile on her face as she slumbered making Doom feel the same warmth that she probably felt underneath the massive blanket that laid upon her.

But just as Doom began to find himself enveloped by the serenity of this view, they began to hear a pair of voices. At first he became concerned that the two that these voices originated from were going to awake Widow with how loud they were being, but then he quickly realized that the conversation was being broadcasted to Doom via the hivemind. Surely then this conversation had to be important, no? Doom wondered to himself. The hivemind must know something that I do not…

“Okay, excuse me for intruding, but… I’m pretty sure you told me earlier that you were just making a phone call? Why are you in your disguise form?” 

“I couldn’t get my voice to sound correct while being in my true form. I know, I know, waste of chaos energy - that’s just how it is.”

“Okay..? What’s up with the defensiveness?”

“Oh it’s nothing, truly. I just figured that I’d get my explanation out of the way right off the bat, since I know how much you love seeing yourself as the authority on all things chaos control.”

“The… what-? You know what, I am an authority now. An authority on telling you to go to bed before your damn temper gets any thinner.”

“Still haven’t made the phone call yet.”

“Why not??”

“I can’t do it with you nagging at me, obviously.”

“Wasn’t trying to nag you, but okay. Make your call. But you better go to bed right after that, you hear me?”

“Yeah yeah, I will, I will.”

“Good. Now if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go back to packing my stuff for my trip to Station Square.”

One of those voices… It sounded so… familiar. Painfully so. During the conversation, Doom was moving all about the exterior of the house, looking for where it could have been taking place. It wasn’t until the end of it, however, that he finally saw who it was that the oh so familiar voice was coming from for just a brief second, before it left the room to go pack as they said it would…

Shadow…

Despite the animosity that seemed to exist between them and whoever it was that it had been talking to, the fact that Shadow was here, seemingly of their own free will, could only mean that… Shadow rejoined the Black Arms???

The thought of such a thing immediately consumed the entirety of Doom’s mind, paralyzing him with a never-ending barrage of thoughts that all came from a variety of mindsets.

For how long has this been a thing without him even realizing it?

What prompted this change?

Is there a reason why Doom hasn’t known about this until now?

Was Shadow secretly always on the side of the Black Arms?

… Did this mean that things really could have just been talked through back then?

These thoughts and more swarmed Doom in a matter of seconds, bringing him down another spiral of thoughts, this time without Sendrir nor Tea around to snap him out of it. It felt awful, he felt so pathetic. He should be above such inner turmoil as a god, but no, of course he wasn’t. He was defective, he was broken, he was corrupted beyond repair. No wonder he was so irrational, so much so in fact as to it be the very thing that resulted in his demise. It was clearer to him than ever before, everything that he has ever done and ever was has been a mistake-

As soon as the thoughts had come, they had also left, being interrupted and pushed aside by the hivemind once again broadcasting the goings on of its vessels, this time playing the phone call that was being made. Having not moved at all since the last conversation he had heard, Doom was able to look up and see that the call in question was being made by a fox mobian with gray fur that had streaks of red in it, with their hair in a loose low ponytail quite like Widow’s, and that was wearing a pale blue turtleneck sweater, loose-fitting long navy blue pants, pale blue slippers and an off-white lab coat - or at least, the form of one. Doctor Clysdale, they heard them call themself during the phone call.

So… This was the one? The Doctor Ezrieal Clysdale that had peaked Doom’s curiosity oh so much?

They… They seem nice.

Despite the bit of bickering they had with Shadow earlier, of course.

In fact… The way they spoke so softly, so elegantly, and the way that their go-to with this “Whisper” they spoke to was seemingly to offer some parental guidance… to help “set them on the right path”, as it were… It reminded Doom a lot of his own self.

Despite the bit of bickering they had with Shadow earlier.

… Actually.

On second thought.

The fact that “Ezrieal”, or whatever their actual name was, had bickered with Shadow like that, but neither of them had been irreparably damaged by it, or even really that damaged at all by it. The fact that Shadow had this fight with someone so much like Doom and didn’t so much as threaten to leave the Black Arms…

It was a comforting thought. The thought that someone so similar to him could have a positive relationship with Shadow… It made Doom wonder if he could then perhaps repair their own relationship with Shadow? Oh, to put aside the transgressions of the past and to once again be the one to help guide Shadow on how to be a strong, smart, and victorious member of the Black Arms… on how to be a wise leader like himself, even… 

That’s it. That’s exactly it!

Now that Doom and so many other leaders had passed on, there needed to be a replacement, someone new to take on the role of bringing glory to the Black Arms, to take back the glory they once had.

Despite everything, Doom knew it in his heart that Shadow was exactly that person, and that he would show it the way to do such things.

There was no hesitation, as there was no need for any. Doom immediately took off from the clinic building and went to somewhere hidden to teleport back into the pawn shop - specifically, the bedroom on the second floor of the pawn shop building. On the door handle was Doom’s necklace, his Doom’s Eye amulet, right where he had last placed it.

Doom took the necklace off of the door handle and rushed with it down the stairs and out the shop’s doors, to hide it somewhere special, somewhere he wouldn’t forget it, but also somewhere no one else could see it.

He left it there for Shadow to find.

So that Shadow could find him.

———————————————————————————————

The room was dark, aside from the very minuscule amount of light that emitted from the small LED digital clock that sat on the nightstand, its hue shifting through the entirety of the rainbow, as was per Garrick’s request.

Four in the morning, the clock read. If it were any other morning, Widow would have responded to such a sight by immediately plopping herself back into bed and going back to sleep for a few more hours, but this morning was… different. She didn’t know why, but it just was. She just had the feeling that it had awoken at this time for a certain reason, though she had no idea what that reason could be.

Throwing on a light floral dress and a pair of slip-on shoes that she kept in the closet for occasions such as this, it could feel the outside world, which hadn’t even been touched by sunlight yet on this day, beckon to her. It sounded absurd when she thought it through with herself, and certainly felt strange regardless, but Widow still obliged to the call of the night, she simply could not resist.

Journeying through the streets of Starlight City as she felt the energy of the world itself guide her through the town, Widow eventually found herself standing at the entrance of the very pawn shop that she had visited the day before. 

She stood there for a moment, confused as to why it was there of all places. Sure, she did have a good time talking to Benson, but was it really so good that she simply couldn’t wait until the next day had even truly begun before visiting him again? Or was it, perhaps, something compelling her to finish what she had started? To kill Benson as she had his brother Reginald? Either way, why was the universe so impatient today?

But as her curious inquiries continued on within its mind, Widow looked down and saw that the keys to the door were resting on the door handle, another piece to the ever compelling puzzle, waiting oh so patiently for her to notice them. Taking the keys, Widow somehow managed to find the right one first try, and unlocked the door to the cozy little pawn shop.

Once she had entered the building, she immediately noticed something that had not been there before - Benson’s dead body lying on the floor behind the checkout counter, his throat having seemingly been slit. The body was fresh, it couldn't have been more than just a few hours since his demise, Widow had surmised. She made sure to get a good look at the pigeon mobian’s corpse, and even got a lick of his blood for good measure as well, becoming even more sure of her theory.

So was this it? Was she guided to the pawn shop so early in the morning so that she wouldn’t miss out on a bit of fresh meat for herself and the rest of the hive? The thought of that, though underwhelming, still felt satisfactory enough for her. So it was quite the surprise when she noticed a folded piece of paper that was on the checkout counter itself, placed under a tea cup. The paper had her name written on it. Not her disguise name of “Wilma Brevair”, her actual name, Black Widow. That fact both intrigued her and worried her a bit as well. Regardless, however, she set down Benson’s body and grabbed the paper, unfolding it to reveal the writing within.

In regards to a so-called “Twisted Maiden”, the one that they call Wilma Brevair

Who I’ve watched be so cruelly rejected, they say “she doesn’t deserve to be here”

Who I’ve seen rumors about and secrets been found be spread around without a care

I’d find it a tragedy upon the universe if you were to disappear

Even if it meant we would reunite in the afterlife, it would be a tragedy 

Once again, she was standing still, staring at her surroundings in utter bewilderment. She had thought back to the day before, having tea with Benson… Or who she had thought was Benson. Within the moment itself, Widow did notice things about the way “Benson” spoke and acted that struck her as familiar. In fact, the whole event had given her immense nostalgia for the little mini dates that she used to have with her beloved late husband Doom, drinking freshly brewed tea and talking about whatever came to mind, so much so that it almost felt like that the event itself was one of these dates. But she had dismissed those thoughts as just her mind trying to depart from reality, and that any similarities to Doom that she saw in “Benson” had simply been a coincidence.

Now such thoughts were completely unavoidable. There was no reason for Benson to have known her true name, and even if he somehow did, everything about this little note just screamed Doom to her. The nostalgia had returned, but for something new this time. This time around, she had remembered how Doom often took joy in writing little letters quite like this one for her, even though the two had lived together back when Widow had lived on the Comet, and he could have easily said such things either out loud or through the hivemind. It was a love language for him, and also a “reclaiming” of sorts, according to him. Doom never told Widow much about his life before he had met her, but it had managed to get out of them some sort of explanation behind the “reclaiming” part - for whatever reason, Doom could only communicate with his creator via writing, and before he had realized how awful their creator was, he found an odd joy in the arrangement. So now he was restoring that joy, but making the effort for someone who truly deserved it.

The handwriting, the poetic formatting of it, the breaking away from the set rhyming and syllable scheme in the final line, it all was undoubtedly Doom.

That fact filled her with immense joy, but also confusion.

But she simply sighed and placed the note in the pocket of her dress as she once again picked up Benson’s dead body, preparing to teleport back home with it.

Chaos Dimension - Freedom Trainees

Chaos Dimension - Freedom Fighters

Chaos Dimension - Black Arms

Chaos Dimension - Seedrians

Chaos Dimension - Robotnik Empire

Chaos Dimension - G.U.N

Chaos Dimension - Dark Gaia Followers

Chaos Dimension - Miscellaneous

Sol Dimension - Miscellaneous