Colour Printer's blag blog

Category: Reignverse

  • Character details: Reign

    • Age: 23
    • Gender: Agender (they/them)
    • Race: British human (The British part is weirdly relevant)
    • Eyes: Green
    • Hair: Shoulder length curly blonde hair
    • Class
      • Weapon set: Mini crossbow
      • Fighting style: Sharpshooter
      • Position: Backline
      • Party role: Attack/Support & Commander
      • Stat spread
        • Phys Attack: ★★★☆☆
        • Phys Defence: ★★☆☆☆
        • Tech Attack: ★★★★★
        • Tech Defence: ★☆☆☆☆
        • Speed: ★★☆☆☆
        • Reflexes: ★★★★★
        • Luck: ★☆☆☆☆
      • Skills
        • (Automatic) Commander’s stand: As party lead, Reign can survive a fatal blow, recovering 30% of their health and receiving a small all stats buff. Can activate once per battle
        • (Unique) (Automatic) Last Reign standing: If Reign is the last party member in a fight, they will recover 40% of their health and gain a large all stats buff, and unlocks Panic stance skills, this lasts for 4 turns. After 4 turns, they will gain a large all stats debuff and the exhausted status condition (Cannot dodge attacks and skills cost 25% more) for 2 turns. Can activate once per battle
        • (Unique) Explosive multiquickshot: High damage multishot that bypasses or explodes past defenses, explosive element. (Hidden: Bypasses most states that typically would dodge or block attacks)
        • (Fusion) Projectile overload: Reign and Brodee fire everything they have at an opponent, overwhelming their defenses with high damage. Highly effective against opponents with high defense or actively blocking
        • (Fusion) Up close and personal: Del creates a shield for Reign to charge in close, changes Reign’s position from backline to frontline while keeping their higher defense and dodging ability for 3 turns
        • (Fusion) London welcome: Fiona covers Reign’s bolts with elemental paint which is followed up by a basic rapid trickshot, omni-elemental (bypasses all elemental resistances), has a random chance to trigger any elemental status effect (3% chance to trigger, one check for each effect per hit, going burn > freeze > shock > stuck, one status per overall attack) and carries the typical properties of a standard rapid trickshot (part of the sharpshooter skillset)
        • (Ultimate) Rain of bolts: Reign pulls out a second crossbow, putting all their effort into aim, rapid trickshot with double the bolts and damage upgraded from small to high for each bolt
        • (Panic) (Automatic) Berserker: Automatically triggers when in Panic stance, charges into the frontline and greatly raises attack, deactivates when Panic stance ends
        • (Panic) Fists and arrows: Extreme physical damage, lowers reflexs and defense for 2 turns
        • (Panic) Fast fist/arrows: Slap on some e-gel (preferred) or e-spray and use Fists and arrows, uses 1 e-gel/e-spray, has a higher skill cost and lower accuracy but prevents the stat debuff, does not apply the normal effect of e-gel/e-spray
        • (Panic) Throwing hands: Attack with all their might, heavy phys damage and low skill cost but deals small phys damage as recoil
        • (Panic) (Ultimate) Headshot: No holding back, aims for the head, deals extreme phys damage which scales up with opponent health, causes all allies to become demoralised (all stats lowered by 20% calculated before stat buffs/debuffs) for the rest of the fight
    • ‘Verse: Reignboot
    • Story role (Note, side denotes the main team, A is Reign’s Musketeers and B is the Rainbow Stripes)
      • Side A – Story 1: The Search For Milk: Protagonist
      • Side A – Story 3: Big Welcome Home: Protagonist
      • Side B – Story 4: All Good Things: Party member (Epilogue only)
      • Side 🆎 – Story 5: Where we Fall: Party leader (Team A)
    • Karaoke song
      • Human – Flavour Foley (with Del)
      • Mr Roboto – Styx
      • Built to Last – The Protomen (With Brodee)
      • Pinkie’s Coffin – KOA (With Fiona Colour)
    • Occupation: Web developer, later R&D assistant
    • Hobbies:
      • Loves watching cartoons and anime
        • Enjoys stuff that’s mind bending
        • Loves shows that focus on robots and androids
      • Lurks in online fandom spaces
      • Avid gamer
        • Typically plays turn based JRPGs
        • If a game has in game non-monetary gambling, they’ll be into that
          • Dice roll dialogue checks mostly
        • Also into FPS games
          • Typically does sniper builds
      • Loves doing photography in the woods
      • Has learned to bounce objects around their home with a shocking level of precision
        • Loves doing trickshots (throwing bouncy balls into a small cup), doesn’t film them or anything, just loves doing them
    • Background: London born and raised
      • Born and raised in Lewisham, doesn’t talk details past this
      • Moved to the US for a good job, joining a couple of social groups but quickly dropped out. The only person they really spoke to is Brodee, who they kept in frequent contact with
      • Eventually they moved to their current home after saving up for the move, putting them outside of town
    • Strengths:
      • If given a reason, will push through any obstacle to see their goal
      • Second level tech wizard
      • Crack shot
    • Weaknesses:
      • Crippling social anxiety
      • Not great at taking a hit
      • Mentally not able to go through with a long term adventure

    Character notes that don’t belong above:

    • Reign is someone with autism, showing the following symptoms throughout the story (if any of this is incorrect then please tell me! I have researched as much as I can and matched Reign’s behaviour to the symptoms I’ve seen)
      • Limited speech pattern when anyone else is around, getting words out in 3 word bursts
        • They are aware and do their best to communicate with this
        • Speech typically comes out blunt and to the point, not like they have words to spare
        • For a lot of info, they tend to quickly type on their phone, they’re fine with texting and online messaging
        • Alone, they can talk their own ear off for hours about the style of one of their favourite game series out loud without pause
      • Very much prefers life alone
      • Struggles to form relationships with people,
      • Speech is monotone
      • During most interactions, they carry a neutral expression, sometimes giving a small smile or a serious expression but only sometimes
      • Likes to stick to a daily routine, mostly in their own home so they can control as many variables as possible
      • When adventuring, they focus on the task at hand or whatever their friends are doing, as to distract from the lack of routine and lack of home
        • Note that they typically don’t start any detouring, they just follow along with others doing it
      • Finds beef biltong extremely comforting to chew on
        • With the whole video gamesk thing going on, while a bit of biltong is minor healing for most, it’s a full heal for Reign, oh no they’re eating the packet, oh no they’re begging for more, how can you say no to that face
      • Becomes quickly overwhelmed in stressful situations
        • If the whole panic thing isn’t a tell, being stripped of their friends for support is a trigger
      • Touch averse, even if someone is being friendly
        • Brodee gets a pass, he’s way too chill
      • At the end of story 1, suffers from a shutdown after Brodee is critically injured
      • Feels other than human, feels awkward even walking and feels they don’t walk properly
      • Can have strange reactions to social interactions
        • For example, when being given praise, instead of feeling good, they instead feel pressure of living up to the praise and worry about keeping it up and if they will end up disappointing in the future
    • Reign deals with Agoraphobia, struggling without someone there to help ground them
      • Dealing with strangers makes their anxiety much worse, even with someone there to ground them, they don’t talk much
        • Weirdly great for the whole video game style thing going on if they barely talk but that is a coincidence, Reign is like this outside the context of this story
    • Brodee is the only person that is in their life before they discovered themself, not that either of them will ever talk of such a time
      • Brodee is proud they’re living their best life

  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 4

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 4

    ← Chapter 3

    Chapter 4: Last Hero Standing

    TW: The post credits scene of this story contains a brief description of a gory scene

    “She… she will be fine” Del looks to Reign, a confident expression betrayed by her tone, “Well I am not aware of what fine might be for her but she’ll get out of there when she wakes up. Now, you have one of those healjectors for our fallen brother or am I going to need to practice CPR?” She taps her foot to an unknown beat, stabilising to the beat of chest compressions. Reign rolls their eyes with a tiny smile, throwing across a syringe which is caught and quickly injected into the recipient. His body carefully taken to a nearby park where he is seated, giving the carrying duo a few minutes to rest their heavily used arms.

    Brodee’s eyes finally open, enough rest for now, he has work to do! The world is a blur for a moment before his eyes focus on the elegant blue sky, the sun beaming down, the flowers of the park, all different bright colours, standing out from the basil green grass and bushes. “… Did I die…?” His words collapse out of his mouth. Eyes go to his sides, on the lovely little park bench is Del to one side and Reign to the other, “Guess not, you’re still hiding behind that hoodie” he produces a weak chuckle, as much of a grin as his tired little mouth can produce. Reign gives a blush and looks away, not too impressed at the comment, but tries to turn things around by producing the funky fresh Brodee basketball, spinning it on their fing- it falls, leaving them to chase it down the path, hunched over and repeatedly kicking it away from their hands. 

    “……..” He watches for a minute or so before remembering that it might be rude and turning to Del, “So… Do you have any tricks for me?” He offers a smile to her, feeling his senses properly coming back to him. “Well I did want to ask if you are feeling well” Del looks to him with a strange, deadly serious look aimed right at his chest, “You… for lack for a better word, snapped in the fight, so I would like to ensure that you are feeling well enough to continue” nanobots swarm around her wrist, forming some form of X-ray scanner, letting her see through to the bone, she takes a look all over him, wincing a bit at his torso. “Look, you’re not going to get hit by something like Wendy again but after this, you need to rest, a big fall or fighting Wendy again could ruin your bone structure. At the very least, do your best to stop torso attacks” she nods, happy of her assessment. Brodee gives a soft sigh, “Please don’t tell Reign about this, they’ll think this was their fault or start on a mental spiral, I won’t hide it, just… after we have the milk” he shoots an apologetic smile and gets a solemn nod in response, right on cue for the third amigo to return with the ball, they’re panting pretty hard.

    After a few unsuccessful moments of catching their breath, The hooded leader holds up the ball, “Ball,” is all they say in their deadpan tone, passing the ball back to its owner, getting a small chuckle from the party. They stare blankly for a few moments, studying the reaction as if encountering humanity for the first time. Del soon takes notice and stares back with a light head tilt, they quickly look away, mumbling a quiet “Sorry…” Now it’s Del’s turn to stare in confusion, “I… uh” they look away but feel a pair of eyes boring into them, their feet start to shuffle on the ground, “Wait… let me” they grab their phone and start rapidly typing. Fingers like lightning, sweat on their brow, tap tap tap, the physic begging of the eyes to get off of them, not that they have any kind of way to push these thoughts into anyone else’s mind. A lot of taps later, their eyes run over the screen multiple times before showing it to the group. “Sorry, I’m not great with social skills or… people at all really, I can be really weird, not like I don’t try to talk more or anything like that, I just find other people really hard, moreso IRL. Del, you seem really cool and being tech dorks sounds really cool but this isn’t something I can turn off” they were sure their heart could be heard through the bench.

    Brodee is the first to speak up, “Reign, you don’t have to be so hard on yourself” for the first time in the adventure, his tone is dejected, his chipper tone replaced with sorrow and worry.

    Reign quickly replies, “Three years” their eyes divert away, this was meant to get eyes off of them.

    His eyes are pinned on them, “Three years? What’s three years?”

    “Since we met” they close their eyes, “Been three years”

    “So?” his tone is unreadable, mixed between pushing back and genuine aggression, “Reign, you show up at my door and have I looked upset or anything? We chat all the time online”

    They don’t look, they can only imagine the look on this face, their hand starting to shake, making the message rather hard to read, “But I-”

    “Right, I’m not being clear enough” He sighs, leaning in and pulling them into a tight hug, a move catching them so off guard, they drop their phone, “You’re not a bother for being yourself, I get that this has probably been exhausting for you, but please, it seems like you’re making friends, don’t…” he pauses, trying to find the wording he wants to use, “Don’t lock yourself completely off, you don’t have to push yourself but Del and Fiona seem pretty friendly, it doesn’t have to be constant meetups or anything, just saying high and catching up sometimes” his usual chipper tone has completely disintegrated, leaving behind pleading words of a close friend.

    They don’t know how to react, heart racing the hardest it has in years at the physical contact, their arms spread out and confused, “I…” they look to Del who has their phone safe and sound and appears to be abstaining from the conversation but gives a friendly smile in agreement to his words. “I can try” one arm faintly wraps around him, “But I dunno” the other arm joins on him, “If I can” they take a deep breath in, a slow breath out, “So, who’s d’Artagnan?”

    “Who’s…? You mean the Musketeers? I guess Fiona, I think Del is part of the trio at this point, she’s really stepped up our game. I guess it’s the reverse though, us three trying to get the favor of the knights” he lets out a soft chuckle, “Sorry to get serious on you, sometimes I just need to remind you that at least one person outside your bubble of one cares, alright?” His arms slowly remove themselves as he sits back up, passing the phone back to its owner.

    Del finally speaks up, “If it helps, I would like to formally be friends and I can ask Fiona on the matter when she’s feeling more awake, if you would like” a small nod of acceptance is given in response, “Wonderful, well it is nice to make a friend”

    “So” the sportaholic looks to the people on both his sides, expression brightening up yet again, “Let’s get this milk before one of us breaks down in some way” voice back to its chipper tone, he springs to his feet, getting a couple of stretches in as the others got to their feet. “Final stop on this heroic tour?”

    Reign stretches their arms, a small smile on their face, “All for one?”

    Del rolls her eyes with a smile on her own face, “And one for all, let’s go, Athos, I can take a guess at where the big guy will be, not like Wendy was in any state to tell us” and with that, she leads on, a spring in her step.

    The walk is neither long nor arduous, for Reign it might be with their double layers in the sun but for everyone dressed for the weather, it was fine. The trio walk side by side, warm breeze blowing in their faces, the final fight in sight, talking to the strange woman they keep encountering on their journey. Tall, long brunette hair, dressed in a jumper because there couldn’t be one person badly dressed for the season. As they approach, they catch a bit of the conversation.

    “… I dunno, mix something up, like you think it he person that managed to get legally recognised non-binary markers on local IDs would be called something other than ‘he’ this or that” Haloes thinks for a moment, “I mean, I don’t want to be like-” he looks up and sees the group, quickly zipping it and giving a wave. Mapel turns and gives a bright smile, eyes sparkling brightly!

    “Hey guys! Sounds like you had quite a day” she beams, her voice sounding softly ethereal, “Wanna tell me about it before you take on the big leader? You know how much I love your perspective,” Reign nods, the trio spending a bit of time explaining what has been happening today, the twists, turns, the fights, and sweet moments. They soon run out of memories to gush about, “Wonderful, I’ll let you all be, give my regards to the next me you meet!” And with that, she walks past and out of the soon to be fight radius.

    “So,” Haloes waits until it’s the trio and himself, “you three look like you’ve been through a lot, you still want to go through with this?” Unlike when he was speaking with Mapel a moment ago, his tone has a lot more confidence, a much more typically heroic tone. Reign simply nods in response, hand shooting to their holster. “You don’t have to grab that thing too quick, I’m not going to surprise attack or anything, if I really wanted, I probably could have you all passed out on the ground by now. You’ve probably noticed a couple of people you fought here have powers, well I’m no exception. To make this fair, I won’t use my usual sword or armour, I’ll even let you get the first hit, just don’t expect me to be easy on you after that,. The only people getting through are emergency services and people strong enough to see whatever they’re doing through,” he glares at them for a moment, taking in the details, the final judgement, “I would prefer not to call an ambulance so if you do feel like this is too much for you at any point, just say and I’ll stop,” his final warning has a stern edge to it, a genuine warning under the heroic bravado. Reign and Brodee both look to their third member.

    “… huh?” Del looks back, “Oh, you want info? Hmm……..” She puts her hand on her chin, goes deep into thought, seconds extend into minutes, minutes extend into hours, hours extend into days. And after 2 minutes of pondering, “… If we are to treat this as a real fight, I believe we are, what’s the common word for it? Ah yes, we are screwed,” she gives a bright smile, she did find the right word after all but after a bit more awkward pleading staring, “look, if he wanted to kill us, he could have crushed our brains by now, do you have a counter attack for that? And before you ask for a weakness, based on everything I have seen, there is no weakness we can strike. He is possibly mortal, though I haven’t seen him age at all so that could be incorrect,” she continues mumbling her thought process out loud but none of it provides a solution. She does eventually stop, ponder for a few moments, “Oh!” a spark in her eye, “He’s not as strong as Wendy, if we beat the snot out of him before he does the same to us, we might be able to win! He is smart though, that’s why I didn’t hold another planning session, he would see right through it,” she gives a thumbs up to a bewildered duo.

    Reign sighs, digging through their pockets, “Hit hard, together,” they grab out a stack of bolts with shining tips, “I shoot explosive,” they point to the hero ahead, “Hit them together,” the other two nod. One basketball bouncing and one set of nano bots forming a fist roughly the size of its user. Bolts loaded into a smaller than normal crossbow, the leader of the group steps forward, “Go” they fire all bolts in the stack around the area, fist and ball charging straight ahead, hero casually standing with no stance or guard up at all. For a second, time appears to slow, 8 bolts all around the hero, ready for an explosive impact, followed up with a dual full force beatdown from a duo, how could this possibly go bad? Even if the bolts are punched or knocked, they’ll still explode on impact!

    8 simultaneous explosions land with two fighters launching themselves into the resulting fog, Reign quickly reloads with plain old bolts, waiting for the visual to clear so they know where to shoot if needed. Before they can see what is happening, the basketball they bought shoots at them at lightning speed, a perfect headshot causes them to almost fall backwards but they’re able to just about to keep their footing, keeping an eye on the ball in case it’s needed soon. The scene ahead soon becomes clear, Haloes hasn’t even moved, shattered crossbow bolts scattered no closer than a foot away from him, and to top it off, Brodee and Del are frozen in place, fists a few inches from his face with red translucent chains wrapped around their arms. They struggle to no avail, arms locked tight.

    “So…” Haloes looks between the three of them, “… this is what you three can do?” He finally makes a move, getting a closer look at the struggling arms, “This is what took out Wendy?” He looks a slight bit insulted by the effort put up, “Look, if you can’t even touch me, let alone break through my basic power then I really can’t let you pass. And sorry Del,” a swift gut punch to Brodee and neck chop to Del takes them out of action, the chains fading away and letting them drop to the ground, his eyes move to the group’s leader.

    Del has taken a fatal hit!

    Brodee has taken a fatal hit and has been removed from the fight!

    “Unless you have something up your sleeve, I highly suggest you take your friends and take your leave, we can take care of things as soon as we have the evidence to intervene,” his stare is detached and deadly serious, not a hero giving a light warning but a guard telling a citizen to back off.

    “…” Reign’s eyes were not focused on the hero ahead, their ears were not taking in his warning, their eyes were focused completely on their fallen allies, their breath becomes uneven, eyes undulating, what little colour in their face drains, “…” their mouth moves but no words come out, “…” they plan for something to say but nothing comes out “…” eyes are on them but nothing comes out. Their body tenses, heart racing, mind running faster than it was ever meant to, before they register what is happening, they’ve loaded a stack of bolts, eyes shooting up to see the target, a burning intensity behind them.

    Reign has gone berserk, all stats increased

    “Look, I’m not an enemy, I just needed to prove the point, you could be dealing with someone-” a bolt is fired, Haloes blocks it without effort, a small red shield appearing around him for a split second for the bolt to bounce off of. “We’ve had reports of a massive operation that has stripped the local area of milk, someone that could put that together could be extremely dangerous!” His eyes move away from the last bolt launched at him and… wait, they’re gon- another bolt, deflected. “What are you even trying?” he looks at the ground around him, nothing wrong there…

    Reign uses e-gel, speed further increased!

    His eyes look up just in time, a bolt bounces off the ground as Reign has launched themself from a nearby building, the extra speed from their current state stacked with the additional speed from the gel allowing them an extreme speed and with it, a lot of power behind the fist currently pointed at the hero’s face. He blocks the bolt but doesn’t have time to put the full force of his power behind blocking the fist, he puts what he can up but it shatters like fragile glass. The fist connects, launching the both of them multiple feet.

    Haloes has taken a fatal hit! He holds on through Heroic Resolve!

    Haloes landing on his back with Reign on their knees on top of him, quickly aiming their crossbow at his face. Not a flicker of the meek person or any humanity behind those eyes, he looks to them with wide eyes, his eyes flicking to the crossbow. Their trigger finger moves, pulling the trigger, as it gets halfway to firing, a red hand appears behind their head and neck chops them.

    Reign has taken a fatal hit! Their heart races and won’t let them stop!

    Haloes pauses for a moment, expecting them to stop or pass out or collapse or something that indicated that a neck chop, his go to move for a quick take down of someone weaker and this group are a group of random people, heck, wasn’t this person meant to be some kind of shut in?! Regardless, time is running out for him to act, his hand clenches, launching up into their unguarded chin. Reign launches a foot into the air, landing to the ground with a heavy thud.

    Reign has taken a fatal hit!

    The party has fallen

    The failure of a trial means the road forwards will remain blocked!

    You must persist!

    You must

    take your

    life in

    your hands…

    “You good??????????” Brodee’s voice rings through, “Come on, I know you’re not that much of a sleeper, I swear if you’re dead I’m not going to forgive you” Reign’s eyes slowly open, a groggy groan coming out of their mouth, standing over them are their two buddies of course! “Oh thank god, I would have actually killed him if he killed you, I mean, I would have tried” he smiles but there’s a serious edge to his words, his hands are clenched into fists and shaking. They sit up, feeling sore in the jaw, “It happened again, didn’t it?” In response, they look away, hiding their face behind their hair, “I’m not saying that you need to fix yourself or anything but that was a friendly fight, not life or death” while carrying the firmness of this being wrong, his tone is gentle and caring, his words catching in his throat, “wait I don’t mean to be harsh or anything” his breathing hitches, his eyes darting away from his friend. “I just mean, you don’t have to worry so much about us, we’ll be fine”

    “… alone,” they softly mumble to themself, “being alone,” they finally look back to him, tears in the corner of their eye, “away from home,” their heart is racing again, but different this time, “it hurts,” why does it suddenly feel hard to breathe? “Fight to stop,” they take a deep breath through their nose and slowly breathe out of their mouth, “stop the hurt,” they look away without hiding their face, taking a few deep breaths.

    “The worries can wait until later” Del chips in, “We do have a job to do, don’t we?” She offers a hand up which is taken with some reluctancy, “I’ve had a chat with the big guy and we’re allowed through, with a stern warning to be careful of course” her tone is carefree, given how she was found, she’s likely heard this kind of warning before and didn’t listen that time either. They simply roll their eyes with a smile, “So musketeers roll out?” She gleefully repeats this saying or possible inside joke with a bright smile, like they hadn’t been beaten a short time ago, a thumbs up given by Reign and a small chuckle by Brodee. A shared deep breath is had as they step on the newly opened path, the path stretching far into the distance. Finally, they have proved themselves enough to get through this darn roadblock, hopefully the end is in sight, Reign would very much like to deflate at home soon.

    Watching them go, Haloes sees the prince approach “How’s the B team doing?”

    Arthur sighs, “Better, the bolt wounds have healed and Fi is rested”

    “Good, can you have them follow the group from a distance? I have gotten word from the city that we can finally move in”

    “From a distance? Why not just send them in? Hell, why not go yourself?”

    “Well that group going off into the distance can probably actually get everything done, they’re a tight knit group but some backup wouldn’t be bad in case something happens, and someone has to stick around to guard while we wait for Wendy to wake up”

    “… fair enough, I’ll go and get everyone,” and with that, the prince gets his phone out, quickly making calls.

    Next time?

    The trio walk through the desert, following a well driven road to their destination, the hours pass, the sun moves across the sky. As the sun gives it’s last gasp of light in today’s sky, they see it, what could best be described as a dark wizard’s tower. The sands around it are well driven and many loading bays surround the ground floor. This is the final stop on the local tour.

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Cover art

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through

    ???

    The credits have finished rolling but something is still there, a static that clears to be some form of interview room, Haloes sitting on the provided chair. “You have to understand that…”

    The scene cuts with static, Chi is standing in front of armed guards in some form of prison, arms spread to protect unseen people “Get behind me!” After a few seconds, a gunshot rings out and statics back to Haloes.

    “…sadly, in this world…”

    Static again, clearing to Fiona, a gleeful smile on her face as she looks ahead, “With this power, I can help everyone!” She sounds thrilled beyond anything seen within the story, static back to Haloes.

    “…heroes…”

    Static to an image of what appears to be a blonde Haloes locked in a cell, curled up on the floor, static quickly returns to the interview.

    “…can’t be made clean…”

    Static to a point of view shot, vision blurring as Wendy looks to her hands, coated in blood, then past her hands to a pile of corpses, ripped apart, insides mixing from the number of open wounds, back to the interview.

    “…there’s always a scar”

    The image cuts.

    Afterword

    Okie this is actually over now

    Some words from our god and creator (the author)

    You know, like Colour Printer, the person that made this?

    You can stop looking at this weird now please, you’re making me nervous I just wanted to say hi

    Thank you for reading! This has been new and different and wonderful to make. Some of these characters have been in my head since September 4th 2013 (Haloes has anyway) and I love them all dearly even with how much they are tortured. And if I end up writing every part of this world, I apologise to Wendy, girl suffering the sins of someone else.

    Here’s a Q&A based on questions I imagine people have, I’m always willing to answer questions directed to me on my Bluesky profile

    • What are these characters? We did start half way through the story
      • Reign is a web developer with serious social issues. They learned how to throw and shoot small items to pass the time alone at home. Their usual interactions with others is online work meetings and chatting with Brodee (online of course), they tend to keep to their home and the private area around it, they live outside the local town
      • Brodee is a retail worker that plays basketball on the side, he’s the only person that Reign has in their life from before they realised the whole non-binary thing, well afterwards too but that’s less impressive
      • Del is the lead (and only) engineer at the local Delta Tech R&D lab, focusing on robotics and AI (not like LLM, actual AI). She’s encountered after a panic state is triggered within the lab, causing a barricade to block the path forward with comms not working to check if she was alright. After being rescued from her own machines, she joins the group as thanks
      • The Rainbow Stripes…. you’ll have to see, I will say that there are at least a couple more of them though :3
    • What the heck was that post credits thing?!?!?
      • Glimpses of the Rainbow Stripes, silly little goobers
      • But really, it’s a teaser of the heroes side of things,
    • What were the items being used?
      • egel/espray
        • When used on receptive characters (typically fem characters, but there are exceptions), gives a speed buff
        • When used on an unreceptive character, gives a attack/defence down
        • No effect on nonhumans
      • tgel/tspray
        • When used on receptive characters (typically masc, but there are exceptions), gives a speed buff
        • When used on an unreceptive character, gives a speed down
        • No effect on nonhumans
      • Healjuvinator
        • Provides a full heal outside of a fight, needs time to work, not great to use in a fight
        • Works on humans and zeon
    • You have plenty of character cards but the descriptions don’t match the characters here! >.<
      • That… that isn’t a question, but anyway most of those character cards are for my TreBoot project, a total revamp of my characters from scratch
      • Reign has a card but that was for a different project showing my self inserts, I want to do cards for this story like my existing cards!!!
    • Do you have some kind of class system or are you just throwing stuff at the wall?
      • There’s a 5 part class system consisting of
        • Weapon set
        • Fighting style
        • Fighting position
        • Party role
        • Powers/skills
      • For example, Reign’s fighting spread is mini crossbow, sharpshooter, Tier 2 commander/Ranged damage, trick/elemental arrows
      • There are some special options for some options
        • Commander party role, this is an additional party role that provides buffs to the party and provides the commander a one time chance to power through an attack that should take them down when said character is in command of the party
        • Polymath weapon set, allows use of all weapon types with basic skills, may also include a specialised weapon
        • Characters with powers may also have a skillset
        • Haloes exclusively has 2 powers, there is a lore reason for this
    • Are you going to make more of this? You left a lot at the end there
      • If I can, I’d love to write the whole thing, it’s a story of 3 times
        • The present of Reign and heroes
        • The dystopian far future
        • The greener fields of far far far far future
      • At the very least, I’d like to write the first 2 parts of this era, one covering the whole of this journey and the other covering the history of the Rainbow Stripes. The rest of the era is close to my chest but there is another Reign story and Rainbow Stripes story as well as an epilogue

    Again, thank you again for reading, it means the world to me that I’ve been able to share this, thank you for reading. Please leave any comments either below or on my Bluesky linked above!

  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 3

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 3

    ← Chapter 2

    Chapter 3: Worries of Wendy

    Arthur sighs with a smile, “Just for the record, she always thinks I’m cute, pom poms or not. And don’t worry, I think you got the energy out of her, she was long overdue some rest” he picks her up, shoulders on one arm and knees bent around the other. Carefully pulling out a couple of syringes, he passes them to Reign, “Fast heals, they tire you out but supercharge the healing process, your friends might need some from the whipping, sorry about that, if I thought there was real danger, she would have stopped” he offers a soft smile, “Get them healed up and I’ll walk you to a cafe to have a break, it’s near the next text and on my way to the castle to drop Fi off” 

    Reign doesn’t hesitate to sprint over to the party, quickly giving them their jabs. The process takes a few minutes but by the end of it, both the wounded are healed up, if a bit winded, Brodee flashes a smile, “Just that easy… can we agree that whips are off limits? Don’t need to get hit like that again” he offers a small chuckle, standing tall while still taking deep breaths. Del gets to her feet, heavily breathing herself, “I agree, the whip was a bad idea, at least the shield seemed to help?” Reign gives an eager nod, “Shield works” they look to their arm where the shield was, “Hard to reverse” they wander back to Arthur, party behind them. “Let’s go” and with those words, Arthur leads on. “So…” Arthur starts, “… Why are you doing this? I mean, you just took down Fiona so I presume there’s a good reason” 

    Reign softly chuckles, “I want milk” Seeing the look on the prince’s face, they decided to elaborate, “Asshole took it” this seemed to be enough for the prince, “Going to be honest, kinda crazy that you’ve come this far just to get some milk back, h-how did you even get multiple people on board with this? Well I guess you really put your heart into things so I bet people just follow, wouldn’t be the first group I’ve seen. If you make it past the members of the A team, you better get your milk back, I heard Rainbow Bright tried but he was stopped due to not having the evidence, that’s what Fi was dealing with all night. And if someone has done something to make her upset, you know the whole team will be behind you” in response to full support, Reign… hid their face, turning their head away, their heart rate increasing. “Oh urr… did I say something wrong?!” Arthur appeared panicked that his words didn’t have the intended effect.

    Brodee put arms around both chatter’s shoulders, “Prince, you didn’t do anything wrong, Reign’s just… themselves, that was a good speech, would have probably worked on most people” their tone is a cheerful one, “And Reign, we’ve got your back, we’re not gonna make you do it alone, lighten up if you can, I’m happy to shoulder everything with you” at these words, they both visibly relax. His point made, Brodee slows down a bit behind the leaders, walking next to Del once again.

    Arthur speaks up again, “So anyone outside of your party that you’d do anything for? Clearly I don’t need to ask about who you’re traveling with” Reign thinks for a few moments, shaking their head, “Brodee’s my friend” they smile, a warm, lost in thought, smile “He’s the best” their words are much more warm and less deadpan than usual, “He’s… always there” Arthur is extremely clear with his facial expression that he wasn’t expecting that answer, “Well… glad to hear you’ve got someone firmly in your corner” he looks down to Fiona, a warm smile on his own face.

    He soon stops, producing out a card for Reign to take, “Just show this in the cafe, they’ll get you whatever you want, and don’t worry, they do a good English breakfast if that’s your kind of thing” after passing the card, he points over to a building labeled ‘Rainbow Cafe’, “Please take the time to plan your next fights, Wendy and Rainbow Bright are literally made for fighting, they’re not going to make a possibly dangerous journey easy to start. And have a good stay, aside from the local guard attacking you, you are all honoured guests here” he does his best to bow before walking on, being gentle with the woman in his arms. The party bow in response before heading their way towards the cafe.

    They quickly find a table and look over the menu, the specials on the menu named after the group they’ve been fighting all morning. Brodee grins, “So, what are we having? I’m looking at the Chi special myself” Reign is next to speak up, “Fiona special please” and finally Del “One set of small cheese twists and one set of small bacon twists please” her eyes light up bright at the idea of mini pastries. Brodee takes the prince’s card, going up to the counter.

    Del smiles to Reign, “So, it seems like we might have similar interests, have you ever tinkered with electronics?” Reign thinks for a moment before nodding, “What do you do for work and stuff?” Reign once again thinks, “Developer for corp” they lightly frown, looking down. “If you’re not feeling good about it, how about you come work for me? I think I’m going to need an extra pair of hands, developer, good with precise movements and has at least tinkered with electronics. It’ll be on site but I can arrange transport for you. I won’t push you on it, but I’d rather have you than some rando off the street” she starts frantically writing down on a napkin, “It won’t be too high stakes unless we really mess up and have to put a bot down” she finishes writing and slides it over to Reign.

    “Delta Co R&D assistant

    In this role you may be required to do the following tasks:

    • Assist in the development of cutting edge Delta Co technology
    • Ensure the facility is up to date and operating correctly
    • Report to the R&D lead (Currently Del)
    • Assist the R&D lead in tasks asked of you relating to the operation of their role or the facility, including administration work

    The following benefits will be provided:

    • Healthcare (full coverage)
    • Personal ownership of tools and developments at the discretion of the R&D lead
    • Personal transport to and from the job site
    • R&D site events
    • Bonus may be provided at completion of a successful product development

    Salary: $175,000 per annum”

    Reign’s jaw drops, “………….. Think about it” they carefully put the napkin in their pocket, “Seems like pressure” they feel their teeth scraping at the side of their mouth, “and big change” Del responds with a nod and a smile. 

    Brodee returns with drinks, “I had to take a punt but I hope you like what I got!” A decaf iced coffee for Reign, a sports energy drink for himself, and a peach energy drink for Del. Reign gives a thumbs up while Del… takes a moment before she gives it a sip, then going for a chug and giving her own thumbs up. Brodee gives a small sigh of relief to himself, sipping at his own drink, “So, today has been tough, I think we can agree” he looks to Del who has her can of drink turned upside down and chugging it as fast as gravity will allow her. Eyes then moving to Reign, they don’t look peachy keen on a good day but they clearly will sleep for a couple of days when this is all over. “… So, how about we actually discuss what we’re doing? I know you guys aren’t too fond of sports but strategy is the key to winning, we’ve done pretty well just swarming and doing things on the fly but we need to know what we’re dealing with and what we can do to counter them, we got the info and the three of us can put our heads together” a bright spark lights up behind his eyes, a grin on his face, for the first time all day, he’s felt truly in his element.

    Del shakes her can over her mouth, the last few drips of drink falling onto her tongue before laying the can on the table, “Right, that’s me! So our next opponent will be Wendy, I think we may need to make sure our medical information is up to date” after a few moments, Brodee gives a go on gesture, “Oh right, so she punches hard, very very hard, like she accidentally broke one of my titanium training bots, she put Rainbow in the hospital when they had a serious fight. The only thing she has outside of a hand to hand fighter is she can do a short range hard light style energy projection, usually using it for movement or to double up on attacks. Her fighting style is slower but she can give and take a good punch, simple but very effective” she looks down, her hands are shaking, “She’s nice but I don’t know if she knows how to hold back” she holds her hands to the table to stop them from shaking.

    Reign sighs, “So, let’s plan” they take a sketchpad out, writing “WENDY” at the top of the page, “Any ideas?” The trio relax just a little bit, getting themselves ready for the next step, enjoying their meals and enjoying a few drinks they didn’t have to pay for. 

    The trio eventually make their way to a training lab, a touch underground, a few stairs below the boring, regular training lab. Inside a woman with flowing, blonde hair facing away from the door. As they enter, 3 metallic training dummies spring up from the floor, the woman rapidly destroys them with one punch each, shattering the dummies, which quickly sink back into the floor. “As much as it’s good seeing the fighters around, this blockade idea is dumb as hell so don’t expect to remember how you leave”

    Brodee bursts out laughing, “Are you serious with that? Did you stand there for like an hour waiting for your dramatic speech?” He struggles to stand, even Reign gives a small chuckle. “So, you gonna fight or just give us another speech on the pointlessness of doing this?” He revs himself up, bouncing his fresh basketball around, starting with a bit of basic up and down but quickly progressing to bouncing it between his legs. Reign and Del give action poses as well, Reign popping out their mini crossbow and pointing it forward and Del giving a strongman pose with power fists around her hands.

    Wendy turns, eyes locked on Brodee like a predator locking onto prey, both of them tuning into what the other is going to do and charging forward. Wendy goes for a direct punch to the face while Brodee mirrors the attack with his ball in his hand, both dodging at the last moment with the ball being launched. Wall bounce, wall bounce… it hits the back of her head! “W-was that it?!” She sounds more perplexed than angry as she pulls back, looking towards the ball and it’s user, wordlessly kicking back as if to give an infant back their toy. He appears to ignore the possible taunting and starts bouncing the ball again to regain his flow, giving Reign a flick of a thumbs up as he rapidly bounces that ball around like no one will ever bounce it again!

    Reign starts rapid firing trickshots, off the walls, off the ceiling, even one off of Del, who creates a shield to deflect the shot. Brodee uses the bolts surrounding Wendy to charge in for a slam dunk with a path clear in front without the danger of bolts getting him in the back. Knees bending down he launches, ball overhead, he was ready to take a punch or kick if it meant the bolts would hit.

    Wendy takes in the scene, sporty guy, Brodee, looking like he’s completely opened himself up with an overhead smash, pure attack but he’s easily countered. Around her, 8 bolts coming from all angles outside of dead ahead, moving at speed so it doesn’t look like the hooded one, Reign, is holding back at all, either they’re charging into everything full force or Del warned them about her. Speaking of Del, she’s just… standing there, not seeming to be doing much, she’s reported to be supporting but right now all she’s doing is standing, did she give the info and that’s it? Wendy, for the split second ponders that she may be missing something, but runs out of time and has to act. She spins, a blue aura emanating from her fist as she knocks as many bolts off course as possible, finishing the spin, her fist launches into Brodee’s gut, after a beat, a burst of energy follows her fist, launching him away towards his party. Two bolts made us through the deflection, one landing in her left shoulder and the other landing in her lower right side back, there’s a small flinch as they dig into her flesh but nothing to indicate pain.

    Reign and Del run to get their buddy out of the crack in the wall he ended up making when he was punched away, needing a bit of a tug from them both to get the guy out. Brodee rubs his head as he gets to his feet, ball casually rolling up to him like some form of pet, “Alright, she hits real hard, get me some of that power gel, I’m going to need a boost” without hesitation, a bottle of tough gel is thrown to him.

    Brodee uses t-gel, attack and defence increased!

    “Gonna be honest, not sure why you have this much of this stuff but heck, it works in a pinch” he chuckles, charging right back into the fight, “Cover sides!” He calls out behind, Reign loads a set of bolts and starts firing again, as instructed, the bolts only go to the side. As soon as he’s in the right place, he launches his ball off the back wall again, this time at such a speed that it leaves a crack in the walls and rebounds to Wendy’s body.

    Wendy again takes in the scene around her, she’s only really got time for the bolts or whatever the guy was doing, not both, and in her experience, crossbow bolts hurt a bit more than a punch and a bit of a knock from a ball. Her arms swing around her sides, deflecting all the bolts. One thing sticks in her mind, she hasn’t seen Del do anything at all, just watch, hasn’t made a move, hasn’t pulled out some over the top gadget to attack, just watch it unfold. The attack comes, one hard blow to the upper back from the ball and one devastating gut punch at the front, the air is thrown from her lungs from the force of his punch, she keeps her footing but just barely. She gasps deep for air before her knee launches up, smashing into his jaw and launching him a full metre in the air, she stands stall, knee launching into his lower back while a fist meets in the middle as it launches to his chest.

    Brodee has taken a fatal hit!

    The crack that comes out of Brodee’s body freezes the air in the room, he falls to the floor, knocked out. Wendy looks at him with a look of pity in her eye, “He has promise” her eyes instantly shift to Del, “But… What are you doing? You’ve done nothing but watch the fight, no tool? No… gadget to launch at me?” her voice comes with a harsh serving of annoyance, her eyes glaring holes into the technomancer. She goes to take a step forward but her legs are fixed in places she struggles but she can’t lift them at all!

    “Incorrect” Del starts with a soft smile coming onto her face, “I have been launching gadgets the whole time, the bolts, the ball, even Brodee’s fist were laced with nanobots, nanobots I currently have magnetically pulling towards these Delta-tech tiles” she snaps her fingers and suddenly Wendy is finding it hard to stand, “Apologies, I was mostly making sure that the bots found their target, my friends are great at delivering them” she provides a bright smile, snapping her fingers again, Wendy is brought to her knees.

    Wendy does her very best to push herself up, but the moment she drags her body up, a tile from the wall snaps off, smashing her face and knocking her back down. Then another, then another, a pile of tiles raining down onto her struggling body until the pile stops moving. One last snap of Del’s fingers and the pile relaxes, lucky for Brodee, the pile ends just before his knocked out body.

    In the next chapter!

    “…am I going to need to practice CPR?”

    Reign sits in a park, blushing and looking away, hiding their face quickly

    “Please don’t tell Reign about this…”

    Haloes delivers a heavy punch to Brodee’s gut

    “All for one”

    “…something other than ‘he’ this or that”

    Haloes delivers a back of the neck chop to Del

    “It happened again, didn’t it?”

    Multiple projectiles explode on a rather casual standing Haloes

    “… One for all”

    Next time in Chapter 4: Last Hero Standing

    Chapter 4 →

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Cover art

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through

  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 2

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 2

    ← Chapter 1

    Chapter 2: Third Fight of Fiona!

    Brodee simply sighs, looking around for something to distract him from the fact that he’s probably broken a couple of ribs from that katana handle to gut, not that his ribs are there or anything. His eyes eventually settle on a sports shop. He’s entranced by the sight of his hobby, deviating from the group to take a look in the window, his eyes lighting up at high quality sports equipment. His eyes are then brought to the price tags, high quality equipment requires high quality funds, funds that a guy like him doesn’t have. “Want it?” Reign appears next to him without a sound outside their words, “… Late birthday gift” their visible cheek reddens a small amount.

    “Wait, you sure?” Brodee’s tone is of pure disbelief, not that he felt forgotten but Reign wasn’t one for getting gifts, not because they don’t care, they’re just horrible at remembering other people, a habit they appear to be trying to improve on. “It’d be great if you can afford it, the material is thicker so it’d be better for bouncing and it should stand up to more hits than the cheap one I’ve got” his eyes light up yet again, fully pulled in by the allure of better equipment and the idea of what could be done with it.

    “No worries” Reign offers a small smile despite their deadpan tone, “I’m well paid” they head inside, coming out a few minutes later with both a basketball, a pair of designer sports shoes, and a lighter bank account. Brodee excitedly bounced the ball around, oohing and ahhing at the better bounce, the more secure feel, and the improved grip. But then he stopped, Reign wasn’t putting on the trainers, “… last birthday” they put the trainers in front of Brodee, “Said your size…” they think for a minute, “… 3 years ago…” he removes his trainers, a size too small, and puts on the new trainers, a perfect fit. “Sorry for forgetting” Reign’s tone shifts ever so slightly, the voice just a tiny bit shaky. He sighs, enjoying the feel of the trainers for a small moment before pulling them into a tight hug, hoping that a quieter show of emotion would get through to the quieter person. It takes a few seconds but the hug is reciprocated, a sigh being the only verbal response, a sigh of letting out hot air, unknown stress, and other such bad things.

    “I am so glad I slipped a tracker in your pockets when we were leaving the lab” Del walks up with a smile, “… Nice shoes” she points finger guns to Reign’s shoes, waits a second, then goes back to walking to the next fight location without a care in the world, the rest of the group following along, a bit more of a spring in the duo’s steps. They soon find themselves standing outside a sparsely populated pub, no one outside and only small flickers of movement can be seen in the windows, Del’s hand stops inches from the handle, “Want to know about her before we go in?” She looks back to the group, getting nods in response, “Alrighty, Fiona Colour is fast, fashionable, and fearless, she is an elementalist through her giant paintbrush weapon and an illusionist through her own powers. Digital eyes aren’t fooled by the illusion, so I’ll be at an advantage but you two will be on your own unless you want to risk pulling out a camera… that enough?” Once again a couple of nods.

    The door slowly opens, all eyes drawn to a pair of people, serious expressions on their faces in the darkened room as one grabs a bat, they move to uncover an object roughly the same size as them, underneath was… a piñata! The area in front of the bar was cleared, outside of the piñata, a young man and a young woman, the both of them appearing to be the same age as the party. The woman is blindfolded and swinging a wooden stick around with a large grin on her face. One swing and a miss, two swing and a miss, three swing and a hit! Small sweets litter the ground as the man gives a little cheer, the woman removing her blindfold and looking around, eyes lighting up at the sweets.

    The party simply waits in an awkward silence around the entrance as the couple sweep up the sweets with their hands, finally noticing the party once the floor had gotten as clean as a couple of people scooping with limbs could make it. “Del!” The woman beams, dashing up close, “These must be your friends. I am Fiona Colour, protege of the Rainbow Stripes and leader of the B team… want a sweet?” Getting a closer look at Fiona, she has a different air around her, while the previous members seemed itching for a fight or at least wanting to get it over with instant attacks, she looks more ready to party, the arms of sweets not helping. The young lady stood with near flawless features, long blonde hair, and fashionable clothes from a classy autumn jacket to stylish shoes, a beaming expression on her face.

    Despite everything that could be said on a first meeting, Reign had their typical few words, “Accent… Mayfair” they immediately stand a bit straighter, “From Catford myself” Brodee and Del share a very confused look, outside of the accent of… British, they clearly had no idea how it could be pinned down like that. “Nice seeing Londoner” Reign offers a smile, a much warmer smile than they’ve given so far.

    Fiona beams even brighter, “Ah, a Lewisham lass-” her face quickly drops, she looks ready to facepalm but her sweet filled hands won’t let her, “……………………. shitting hell, sorry, label my posh butt dumb for that one” she looks to Reign who looks more caught off guard by the language than being called `lass`, giving a sigh of relief, she finally continues, “-well you don’t get many people with a London accent around here, good to have someone around here that knows the city, not that I don’t like the local accent, but the rest of the family either are southern English or American” there’s a sparkle in her eyes, “Do you get me?” Reign simply replies with a hurried nod, “Well win or lose, I’m gonna make you a pen pal” she gives a playful wink and a giggle.

    The man approaches, putting his armfuls of sweets on a nearby table and pulling Fiona away for a second to do the same, “I’m Arthur, don’t worry too much about me, I’m not the one you’re fighting, but I am the zeon prince so I should probably watch” next to Fiona, Arthur looks extremely plain, short, somewhat messy jet black hair, casual black clothes. Something out of the corner of his eye makes him jump, Fiona’s just pulled out pom poms! “Oh can I just watch, official duty and all that?” given Fiona’s quick change into a pounce like pose, watching wasn’t an option. Like lightning, she tackled him to the ground, securing his hands around the pom poms, a moment of pause as they just stared at each other before bursting out laughing, struggling but eventually getting to their feet. “I guess you also…” he doesn’t get to finish the sentence, the look he gets is enough to know the answer.

    The prince, resigned to his fate, started to change. In a couple of seconds, he had completely changed to a feminine form, while for the most part he looked the same apart from… woman, his haircut changing to a long pixie cut being the biggest change outside of this. Reign and Brodee looked at Arthur in amazement, mouth agape and all. Fiona speaks up with a smirk, “I hope you’re reacting like that because of the shape shifting and not because he’s hot, he’s mine!” She wraps an arm around him and holds on tight, using her free arm to fan away at the party, “… Wait why am I doing this, I gotta beat you guys up anyway… sorry Del, not going to go easy on you” she peels herself off of Arthur and leads everyone outside. 

    Once everyone got into position, she stomped her foot onto the ground, a giant paintbrush launching up in a rapid spin, she grabs it out of the air, pointing the brush end towards the party, standing on one leg with her free hand making a peace sign. Arthur quietly cheers with the pom poms. “Now would be a good time to get your weapons out” she paints on the ground, jumping on it, cannonball style, causing the paint to explode and launch her high into the air causing her to become a silhouette in the beaming sun.

    Fiona in front of the sun, ready to slam her paintbrush at terminal velocity

    She rolls a couple of times, holding her brush above her head and aiming right as Reign with the thick wooden handle. Then she falls, falling, falling, falling, as she gets ever closer to breaking a skull, Reign feels something on their arm, a nanobot formed shield, circular and already strapped in for Reign to raise their arm up and……

    Fiona phases through them and through the floor. A flicker of something catches their eye as they throw their arm around behind them, a heavy impact hitting the shield and pushing them back but they hold their ground. The culprit flickers into view, Fiona’s face appears with a wild smile and a deep fire in her eyes, pushing her full weight onto her paintbrush and into Reign’s shield. “You better not disappoint me now, Catford” Fiona flashes a cocky grin, flipping back and onto her feet to avoid a basketball which would have hit her head. She takes a simple moment to stretch, out of nowhere a large rocket propelled metallic fist clocks her in the face, sending her spinning on the spot.

    She orients herself, watching the scene around her, grabbing the rocket fist on its return trip, putting her hand inside and using the power of the rocket fist to punch the returning basketball directly towards Reign, the fist quickly collapsing into nanobots and returning to Del. Reign uses their shield to deflect the basketball back to Brodee with good enough timing to actually get it to him. Fiona sighs, “Gosh, you do have a good eye,I might have overplayed my powers already, if you’re expecting me to fool you with illusions, you should better know that I love a good twist” 

    With a twirl of her brush, she splatters blue paint on the ground, a wall of ice erupting from it, creating a wall between herself and Reign, another splatter of paint at her feet and a blast is sending her straight towards Brodee and Del. She sprays some brown paint ahead of her, hardening into small fragments not unlike shrapnel, both targets jumping to the side but suffering some cuts, nothing too deep or sticking in. She skids to a halt on her feet, followed by one crossbow bolt scraping her right shoulder and another bolt sinking into her left shoulder, she gasps but otherwise doesn’t react to the bolt lodged in her, instead splatting some red paint behind Brodee, causing an eruption of flames behind him as she threw herself towards him, already at a half swing.

    He goes for a trickshot off the ground, slamming his basketball into the ground and putting his arms up to block the strike the best he can, closing his eyes and putting everything into his feet and arms. The blow comes, a hard hit at full force slamming against his arm but unlike the blow against Reign, the force on his arms unexpectedly stopped, he opens his eyes, looks like the basketball got her in the gut and in the moment, Del was able to wrap a whip around her arm, able to keep her fixed in place in a clash of strength.

    She looks below herself, using her foot to kick the basketball used to attack her behind her, distracting Del enough to pull the whip from her hand and take control of it, whipping in front of and behind her, landing strikes on Brodee and Del, leaving deep wounds across their chests but not taking them out of the fight yet. “Del, blunt arrows!” Reign calls out, crossbow pointed directly at little Fiona. A whip comes Regin’s way, aiming for their shield but the shield collapses into nanobots before the whip can land, the nanobots clinging to Reign’s full clip of crossbow bolts, bolts that were soon fired as trick shots in Fiona’s direction, her looking at the pathing of the bolts, whipping a couple out of the air to make an opening to jump though to avoid where was aimed for.

    However, the bolts continue to bounce around, an unclear reason for so much bouncing until Fiona feels the punch of 4 separate blunt bolts, all hitting her chest and back, completely taking the air out of her lungs. As she attempts to get her breath back, Reign kicks her to the floor, crossbow pointed an inch from her face, the intent was clear enough. “Fine… you win, good game, Catford” she smirks to them, pushing the crossbow aside and getting up and finishing that stretch from earlier, “Dang you put on a good show, thought I might have had it in the bag when Del pulled out an old style whip and let me take it” she carelessly pulls out the crossbow bolt from her shoulder as she speaks, throwing the bolt in a nearby bin.

    A big yawn escapes her lips, “I think it might be time for my prince to whisk me away” she throws her arms up in the air and slowly starts to fall backwards, like lightning, Arthur was behind her for the catch, “Well since my prince is here, you know a true love kiss from a prince heals all… darn I love it when you’re so cute” she giggles frantically to herself, getting weaker and weaker until it’s pretty sure that she’s fallen asleep, a gentle smile on her face.

    In the next chapter!

    “Get them healed up…”

    Brodee casually throws his arms around Arthur and Reign

    “I had to take a punt…”

    ‘WENDY’ is written on the top of a sketchpad page

    “… don’t expect to remember how you leave”

    Next time in Chapter 3: Worries of Wendy

    Chapter 3 →

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Cover art
    • skelaxo – Fiona story art (Comm him, his art is amazing!)

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through
  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 1

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 1

    Chapter 1: Eyes Awake for the B Team

    Sunlight flickers through the window of the inn room, tiny peeks of the world outside the lightly furnaced, rustic room. In the room’s single bed is a mess of blonde hair emerging from the hood of a thin, grey hoodie. The figure under the hair starts to stir, suddenly sitting up and moving the hair to one side to reveal the left side of their face. Reign spins around, legs thrown over the side of the bed, before getting onto their feet with a gentle thud then another few thuds as they stumble forwards before getting steady.

    “Need more sleep” they mumble to themselves, “…Later…” Grabbing into their backpack, they get a replacement set of clothes, including a hoodie and regular fit jeans, before stumbling their way to the ensuite. The ensuite is much more modern, though a wooden shower unit probably wouldn’t be too useful, with the basics for a fresh morning all supplied and ready to use,  the room like stepping from a fantasy style inn to a small, sanitary home bedroom. Reign puts their things to one side and looks in the full length mirror, taking the time to remember how they ended up in the inn in the first place.

    It all started when they woke up the day before and couldn’t find their milk, so they looked around Hometown and all the milk had been taken! They’ve partially taken any clue and wandered in the clue’s direction, ending up in this inn. Their left arm holds a tattered sleeve, the arm itself covered in lightly covered bandages. They carefully remove the bandages, cringing at the small stings of movement, they sigh as they see the splattering of cuts, still open, “… No more panicking” they unceremoniously reapply the bandages. Next bit of patching themselves up was a healthy helping of burn cream to their waist, while much more painful to touch, the memory of this one is a bit better, a very small smile on their lips between pained cringes of actually applying the cream. Final thing to check was the hidden side of their face, moving their hair to the side to inspect a peppering of pinprick cuts on their cheek, thankful that this one doesn’t need any covering.

    After the beating they clearly took yesterday, they’ve ended up in a rather new town, forming within the last 20 years, though they don’t remember the details too well, they were only a toddler at the time, and they’ve had no reason to leave their hometown in their life, all they know is that the town is almost completely occupied by space aliens! After bumping into the leader of the (assumed) human group, Rainbow Bright, they were informed that they won’t be through without completing a trial, but before even describing the trial, he got them a free room for the night to rest up first.

    Completely rushing the shower, Reign used their own shampoo but outside of that, was happy to use the supplied toiletries. They emerge from the ensuite freshened up with their blonde hair exploding out of the front of their hoodie, covering the right side of their face, emerald eye taking in the room one last time before they pack their damaged and dirty clothes and make their exit. The door to their room faces the top of the stairs down, they take a moment to look at the door of the room next to theirs, the door is open. They nod to themselves and take the first step down. A voice unsubtly runs up the stairs.

    “A TRAIL!!! From THE Rainbow Bright!” That young adult losing his mind is Brodee, Reign’s best (and totally only) friend, one quick look at him sitting at a table quickly confirms it, messy hair, loose sports clothes, basketball Reign thinks, but they actually have no idea. “I really hope this trial is a bit less tough than your robots though” he beams with a glint in his eye, bruised from a sucker punch. His fork wielding hand bruised around the knuckles where he tried to punch out a robot… it didn’t work, for the record.

    “Yeah, he’s pretty cool, I mean, I do know him… remember?” sitting opposite him is Del, the head engineer of the local robotics R&D site, her hair obscuring her face as she appears to be making repairs on some form of controller. “Always good for testing stuff too” a bit of oil from the controller drips onto her button up shirt and slim jeans, she appears completely unbothered by this and continues to tinker with the controller. Luckily for her, she has only just joined the group so she is free of battle damage for now, minus the fresh drop of oil, at least her plate is already empty.

    “Hey guys,” a rather unemotive tone from Reign as they take casual steps towards the duo, taking a seat at the table and looking at the food menu behind the bar, the chalkboard menu mostly features parts of a full English breakfast. After mulling it over for a minute, they’re back on their feet and towards the bar, behind the bar was a professional looking man in casual clothing, on his chest a name badge reads ‘J.K.’, when Reign approaches, he stops cleaning glasses and diverts his attention to the hooded person. “Bacon egg muffin” they look to the man behind the counter for a moment, “… Please.” J.K. nods and gives a thumbs up, firing up the hot top and preparing to make some food without a second delay with Reign nodding and returning to their seat.

    “You sleep well?” Brodee finishes up the last of his food, looking to Reign brightly

    “Yeah, burn still…” Reign gestures to the area of the burn mark, “… Hurts though” 

    “Sorry about that!” both Brodee and Del reply in unison

    “Don’t worry” Reign smiles softly as they look between the duo, “it’s all good”

    “Good to hear” Brodee gives a thumbs up, “I got some practice in this morning so that shouldn’t happen again” a small fire brewing behind his eyes, a promise behind his words.

    “Yeah, and I’ve got a stealth drone overhead to throw down some bots” Del clicks her controller back into one piece, “Should be a good bit of help”

    “Good to hear” Reign slumps into their seat a bit, letting themselves relax as they see J.K. approach the table, putting a double bacon and egg muffin down. “Thanks” they take no time in chomping it down, devouring the food before J.K. makes it back to the bar.

    —

    Stepping out the inn into the heat of the sun, the trio make one step before a voice calls out to them. 

    “I hope you rested up well,” a figure they’ve all seen already approaches, its Rainbow Bright, sporting a casual T-shirt and shorts.

    “Oh yeah, thanks again for setting us up for the night” Brodee beams, “So what was the trial we gotta do? Not to rush, but I’m ready for it!” 

    “I do have one question first” Rainbow looks the group up and down a couple of times with a judging expression, “Have you ever encountered individuals with powers? Like beyond basic science type stuff”

    Del quickly steps forward before Brodee can think of a response, “Well I think I can spill the beans on that when it comes up, isn’t the point to keep everyone on their toes?” 

    “… Sure, why not?” Rainbow provides a casual shrug, “Since Del knows so much on the area, I’m sure she can guide you around as well. The first trial is in the small basement lab” he then gives an overdramatic bow, “And with that, I’ll be off, Del has my number if you need any assistance and I think there was a robbery a block away I need to chase down!” With those words, he runs off, turning a corner out of view.

    “Soooooo Del….” Brodee looks to Del with a harsh judging expression, “If you knew these guys, you could have said yesterday instead of me going in front for first contact”

    Del returns the eyes on her with a look of pure confusion, “Wait… did we talk to him yesterday? All I remember is walking and working on my new controller” the eyes on her quickly grow more judging “Really! If I saw any of the team, I would have said hi!” The eyes on her get more harsh, “I was working on a controller to help out, I very much doubt how well I can throw a punch but you both know how well my machines can!”

    “……………….. Alright” Brodee is clearly not convinced but drops the matter. “Well either way, we gotta get to the basement lab, so lead the way” he over dramatically throws his arm out to let Del walk ahead, before Del walks the other direction, seemingly completely obvious of what just happened.

    One short, boring, annoying, uneventful walk later, they stop outside a suspiciously bland building, so bland that within the block of normal buildings, it’s the blandest of them all. Reign takes stopping as a sign that this is the building they need and buzzes the electric doorbell/speaker that offices all seem to have, waiting for a response.

    “‘ello ‘ello, this is Alex, what can I help ya with?” The speaker speaks out with the extremely compressed voice of a woman, sounds cheerful at least.

    Brodee steps in, “Hey, we’re here for a trial? Rainbow Bright sent us here” after a second pause, the door unlocks, after another second of the trio looking at each other with no words, they walk in and head down the set of stairs at the entrance. The entry was, again, plain office style, a couple of signs showing companies upstairs but all of the companies have either rainbow or general colour theming. Down the stairs and past a keycard door Del has the key for, they enter the underground lab.

    The lab is more plain, more sterile, tiles line the walls and floor, the only thing interrupting the look of the room is a young, casually dressed woman under a stack of boxes, reaching for a computer terminal before seeing that people are already in the room. She starts to speak but before any words come out, she locks eyes with Reign.

    Like lightning she slips out from under the boxes, a catlike hiss coming from her mouth, picking a bulky sniper rifle from the floor and flicking a couple of switches on it. The sides of the rifle explode out, forming a barricade that spans the width of the room, the only hole at the centre around where the sniper scope pokes out. By this point, Reign has pulled their small crossbow from their waist, pointing it dead ahead, an uncharacteristic look of angured determination on their face.

    Brodee makes the closest sound to a bunch of question marks possible, Del looking over the scene for a moment before speaking up, “You said Reign is a developer, right? Well they’re both similar but not compatible maybe, I mean, if you had a new guy come in that’s chatty and sporty, you’re probably gonna hit on him or something, so that’s all good. I think myself and Alex have seen… the way Reign looks at other people, it’s not bad, but they give an aura of not wanting to flirt or anything like that, and if it’s not a flirt, it’s a fight” this does not stop Brodee’s confused noises but he trusts the explanation given Del’s knowledge on artificial intelligence, there has to be some overlap… right?

    Reign fires the first shot, hitting the barrier, the bolt gives a weak bounce off before falling to the floor, the barrier not even getting a paint scratch. Retaliation, only a split second of aiming before a shot, as fast as sound, launched towards Reign, it aimed towards the side of their face hidden by hair, while aiming to hit where Reign has a harder time seeing, it presented its own problem. The shot bolted through their hair… and right though the back of their hoodie’s hood, missing the head entirely. Taking a second to inspect the damage, they were able to gleam that the shots are non lethal by the damage to their hood tearing the fabric much more than a straight up bullet would have. 

    Reign only mumbled one word in response “… Trickshot” they aim their bow to the floor, taking a moment to line up, before firing, the bolt starts bouncing off the walls in a spiral, getting over the barrier! The bolt continues its path until it hits the back wall, rebounding towards the back of the barrier. One moment later, a pained noise is heard from behind the barrier followed by a barrage of shots.

    All of the shots missed, not even a mistake like the precious shot, none of the shots are even close to hitting. Reign rolls their eye(s?), taking their sight to the scope of the rifle, possibly the perfect size for a perfect shot. The rifle still aimed in their direction, Reign focuses their eyes, takes a deep breath, steadying their body. Next was the aim, focus fully on the aim of the crossbow, lining up a shot with an unsteady target. Finally, time to fire.

    The bolt fires, even with an unsteady target, the bolt enters the rifle’s barrel, scraping the insides and getting quickly jammed with part of the bolt sticking out. A hesitant moment, she could be hearing to see if the bolt hits the floor or even that the bolt didn’t make it through the small gap around the barrel. But in the end, another shot can be heard, this time no bullet escapes, a loud bang like a PSU breaking ring out throughout the room.

    Soon after that, the barrier comes down, reverting to a bulky sniper rifle form, Alex available to see once again. Her eyes are much more tired than before, her arm heavily bleeding with a bolt sticking out of it. “… You pass… I’m going to hospital” her voice is completely deadpan, a far cry from her cheerful tone before entry. She doesn’t look towards anyone, walking towards the exit and leaving the room without another word.

    A moment passes as the trio look at each other, “We win?” Brodee offers an over the top shrug. Reign pitches in with what sounds to be a very deadpan JRPG victory tune made of ‘do’ noises before checking their hair, adjusting it to hide the hole made in the fight, their hoodie damage, not as easily hidden. Del quickly gets behind them and like lightning, she had the hole patched, not invisible but better than a hole.

    She then pulled out her phone, tapping away at it for a moment, “Alright, got the next location, you good to go?” She looks to Reign who plainly nods in response, they stretch a bit, Del leading the group outside and to their next destination. On the way they pass many stores, Del occasionally veering towards one and looking through the window to take a look before getting back on track, mostly electronics and tech related but a disappointed sigh from the tech head.

    Brodee stops for a moment, “So… what’s the game plan here? Like I’m gonna be honest, I just almost saw my bestie get shot in the head, why are we not freaking out about this?!” Reign just gives a halfhearted shrug in response, Del fiddles with her remote a bit having not listened at all. Brodee just sighs, “You two are crazy, I don’t understand how the hell you’re so calm” he simply sighs in defeat.

    One step forward, Reign’s hair on the back of their neck stands up, they fire ahead, their bolt hitting something and pinging off to the side. A katana clatters to the ground in front of Brodee, “This is it” Reign mumbles, keeping an eye on the katana to see if its owner shows up. Before the mystery person makes the move to the katana, something is rolled to the group, rapidly spewing out smoke that covers a small area. It only lasts a few moments, a figure standing just outside of the smoke, katana in hand.

    “You’re really pulling out the stops, aren’t ya, Chi?” Del speaks up with a smile, another friend to her. The figure wears a brown hoodie and loose trousers that hide their figure, spiked up brown hair on the top of their head. From their head and hands, they appear to be slim and their skin is tan in colour. “My guy, you don’t have to be like that with it, you don’t gotta try and be that cool, it’s just me and these two people that got me out of the lab” Del beams.

    Chi rolls his eyes, “Sorry, Del, you guys have got a test and I’m not going to hold back” he sounds lightly hesitant, his voice also sounding a bit put on, forced a little lower. He grasps the katana with both hands, pointing it towards the group in a fighting stance, “So, we gonna see if you got the metal?” He takes a great leap into the middle of the group, spinning his blade around, the group jumping away.

    A moment of respite, Reign pulls an item out from their hoodie pocket and gets a good spray on their opponent with it, ecstatic spray, known as e-spray, good for friend or foe alike. Chi stops for a moment, looking at the sprayer with pure bewilderment for a few moments of stillness before he bursts out laughing, moving in a zigzag, his steps faster, his katana hungry. His sword barely misses Reign, who uses another spray, this time tough spray, known as t-spray, his downswing slows down but the force of the swing lodges the sword into the ground, without pause he effortlessly pulls it out.

    Chi looks to his target’s somehow unscathed body, “D-did she not tell you? I take either spray so I guess now you gotta pick your poison. Wanna keep me strong or want me even faster?” The look in his eye was one of pure confidence, he has full control of the situation and has practically pinned down the leader of the group, if there’s a time to be confident, it’s now.

    As he moves his sword to land a surefire blow, he instantly turns around, slashing at a small rock that was thrown at him, he takes a step towards Brodee, throwing his sword in the air, letting it twirl and catching the handle without looking away from his new target before suddenly stopping, putting his hand to his chin as if in thought. After apparently thinking something through, he turns back around, sights back on the leader. Brodee rolls his eyes, pulling Del in and making some silent gestures, ending with a worried thumbs up, getting a nod in response.

    “Hey, Chi, wanna try out my new toys?!” Del shouts out, multiple small flying drones shooting from her sleeves, hovering behind Chi for a simple moment before rapid firing small pellets. The noise of the firing combined with the angle of the attack allows Brodee to game legally dribble his basketball around the side, a leap in the air to full force slam dunk the ball right onto Chi’s dumb, distracted head, the movement, the timing, the placement of all of the pieces was perfect!

    “Del, you have to not agree to plans I can see through, sets a bad scene for the party” Chi turns around, the handle of his blade launching into Brodee’s gut, he was completely defenceless with how surefire he believed the plan to be. “So now that this basic distraction won’t work and what looks like the most sporty of the group is gasping for air, what will you do no-” the sound of one of the drones being hit rings out, quickly followed by a squelch. Chi looks down, seemingly not too phased by the crossbow bolt currently in his leg, “… this is probably why they don’t let me on the A team” he lets out a sigh, keeping more of an eye on Reign and their crossbow now.

    “Del… more power” Reign calls out, firing out multiple crossbow bolts as Del calls back her drones, soon sending out bigger ones. The bolts are near misses, the threat of them being enough for the drones to set up and get a few shots, Chi having to put his focus into blocking the drone shots lest he get pelted by actually harmful pellets. Seeing the opening, Reign takes a direct shot at Chi’s other leg, him blocking the bolt but letting his guard down, the drones focusing fire on his sword wielding arm to stop him getting his defence back up. A couple more near miss bolts divert his attention before he sees the endgame but it was too late, too much happening at once to do anything about it, Brodee had the slam dunk inches from landing.

    One major head impact with a sports ball later and Chi was down for the count, he was still awake but dazed, on the floor, and with one leg being completely spiked through. Del quickly makes a call “Hey, Rainbow… yeah it’s pretty good… no we’re not having trouble… Just saying that you might wanna pick up Chi, he’s kinda pretty badly beaten… concussion, probably some bruising, and he’s got a bolt through the leg… yeah I think it’s about the same spot he got shot… great, thanks” and like that the phone was put away, “He’ll get picked up in a moment, so want to move onto the next one?” There were shrugs between the rest of the party before Reign gives a thumbs up and Del leads the way, completely unphased by her first major fight involvement, humming a little song and tinkering with her small remote as the group moves ahead. “I think Fiona’s in the local inn, from the sounds of it, she got put on the boring jobs recently so she might be itching for a fight”

    In the next chapter!

    “…3 years ago…”

    “I am Fiona Colour, protege of the Rainbow Stripes and leader of the B team…”

    A bat swings, a loud grunt can be heard

    “I am the zeon prince…”

    Reign bends their arm across their body, a circular black shield attached

    “…you should better know that I love a good twist”

    Next Time in Chapter 2: Third Fight of Fiona!

    Chapter 2 →

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Art
    • ObliterationEgg – Giving pointers for the start of the story

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through

  • [DRAFT] Rainbow Bright Suit T&Cs

    A Futurepunk/Reignpunk draft

    Conner inspects the suit of power armour, “So this has been retrofitted to fit me? Because I’m pretty sure I’m not the same height or build so I want to make sure I don’t look like a cosplaying kid” he looks over the bulky chest plate and pokes the 3D printed flexible parts on the inside.

    Wendy gives a lazy grin in the corner, leaning on the wall, “Should do, I mean, I put your specs in the program and got those parts out, not like I can do any more than that, if it doesn’t fit then we gotta call someone in to fix it” her follow up shrug matches her casual, lazy leaning on the wall look she’s doing right now.

    Conner shrugs himself and gets to putting the power armour on, the added parts on the inside making for a snug but not constricting, it takes awhile, like putting on a tight, inflexible pair of jeans for the first time. Soon enough he has everything on but the helmet, “Fit’s like a glove, the glove parts at least” he moves his limbs around, slow moving as the suit is very heavy and doesn’t yet have power for easy movement. He carefully puts the helmet on, giving it a twist to lock it in, causing the suit to automatically power up.

    The HUD of the suit fills up Conner’s vision, text in green boxes is the design choice of the day, “Welcome to the Rainbow Stripes suit!” Displays in big letters, smaller text appears below “Created by Del, Georgia Colour, Alex, and Haloes Colour” After giving a few moments to read the text and probably load data, a red laser runs over his eye before a new box appears, “Scan complete, Conner Colour profile loaded from StripesNet” Conner waits until another box appears, this one seemed a lot bigger.

    “Please read and agree to the following before use of Rainbow Bright power suit and RBAI interface.
    I presume that if you need to wear this suit, this silly old world, the more it’s saved, the more it needs to be saved, like running in place.
    I hope that Wendy or whoever is there in her stead has done her best without me.
    All I ask for someone to use this suit, my only requests:

    • Never be cruel or cowardly, face the challenges of your life in your stride
    • No matter what, hate is for fools and love is smart, hate if you must but please try to love those around you
    • Try to be nice and never fail to be kind, I’ve probably still got a reputation to uphold you know?

    Never reveal your origin, unless to children, I doubt anyone would understand the origin of the person in the power armour, only children have the imagination and only if they want to. But nobody else.
    Laugh bright, act before you think, and show a big heart.
    To the inheritor of my suit and legacy, I wish you well, I really hope you can rock the world.
    – Haloes `Rainbow Bright` Colour”

    Below the text is an agree/disagree set of boxes, he reads through the text, taking it all on board before he selects agree and lets the suit continue to start up. Many boxes appear and disappear, showing the many functions starting and succeeding. After many many many boxes, a tiny figure suddenly appears right in front of his eyes, giving a wave,“What the hell?!” Conner quickly takes off the helmet, looking to Wendy,”I… I think there’s a fairy in the helmet” his tone was a mix of bewilderment and fear.