By: Indumati Eveningnight
Descending in a ray of moonlight that pierced through the dark cloud of night, and landing right atop of an old radio tower, was a girl with white bat wings carrying a staff tipped with the light of the moon itself.
She had descended for the first time, in a long time, her training complete, remembering the words and thoughts of her mentor. Remembering the mission she was called to accomplish in this reality, the hooman realm, in the city of St. Joan.
Luna, a luna moth of light only Indumati could see in her daydreams, because she existed between dreams and reality, appeared to her eyes. Luna then said, "Now, let's begin our first patrol of the city. And don't forget to face each evil you come across with courage. After all, this world could use a little hope." Indumati replied, a bit quietly and thoughtfully, "I shall bring peaceful dreams in this troubled night." And then she jumped from the radio tower and flew on her radiant wings and headed into the dark streets of the city, listening, watching as she traveled about on foot and on her wings...then she heard a cry for help ring from down a dark alley, and she soared to a nearby roof, silent and quiet as she had been taught. She saw a large man with clown makeup on his face and a bloodied butcher's uniform taking a young woman capture and dragging her into a van and having a large knife in his hand, ready to strike the woman. Indumati aimed a luminous bullet for the knife to knock it out of the strange hulking man's hand. The man turned to see Indumati as Indumati swooped down towards him. He then said, "Someone fancies themselves a hero...but that's perfect." He then let go of the injured woman and went to grab a knife tied around him to hurl towards Indumati. Indumati deflected the blow with her staff, but then he moved his hand and the knife went to strike at Indumati's cheek! It also felt harsh against her and burned a bit. An iron knife? The man then moved a string the knife was attached to in order to return it to his hand and licked the blood off of it. Indumati was creeped out and he said, "I see...a Fae folk thinks they can take on The Butcher? But I saw how you reacted to the knife. So...I'll make this quick." He then charged right for Indumati and aimed to bite right into her. Indumati scattered some moondust across the field, and was quick to evade the incoming blow, and then she hit The Butcher's knee with her staff to trip him, which worked, but he quickly recovered, as Indumati fired a moonbeam right for him. The Butcher was struck! But...he was unphased. In fact, it didn't seem like he had any injuries at all. The Butcher then said, "You cannot kill me. You see, I ran into ones like you before. And learned a useful technique that makes me invincible." Indumati observed a scar hiding under his chest. She knew the technique The Butcher used well...the Koshchei Technique. A technique that makes people immortal and unstoppable, as long as they separated themselves from their heart. Indumati winced. Had this brutish man really done such a thing? Then he appeared behind her while she was in thought and slammed down with both arms, which she quickly turned and grabbed under his arms and threw him aside with the physical enhancement enchantment. He slammed into a wall and got up, and he glared at Indumati. He then threw a couple of knives towards her. Iron ones. Indumati deflected them and try cut the strings with her crescent blades, which he deflected by firing something from his hands that looked like her own Luna Bullets, which surprised Indumati. Could it be part of his true art? But how? Then she realized. Her blood. From the knife. She poured out more moondust, near invisible to The Butcher and prepared to counter but the knifes quickly swung around and struck her in the vitals in the leg and back which caused her to stagger and then the Butcher leaper at her to pin her down and then drew a knife to stab her in the heart. Indumati lay down dead, defeated. The Butcher smiled a bit, before taking her body into the van, and driving away. However, unknown to him, it was actually an illusion, and the real Indumati was trailing behind the truck from the air, unseen by The Butcher, as he thought he got a big score by taking down a rare being and couldn't wait to taste the meat. Indumati knew this was the way to track him back to his lair. The Butcher was annoyed that the woman he tried to capture had gotten away during the fight. He coughed a bit, as the moondust had scattered all over him. He wondered what was up with it anyway?
The Butcher's vehicle pulled into a dark factory in the dead of night under the light of a moonless sky in the dark of night. Inside, it smelled like the scent of blood and the rot of death, and dead bodies of many humans lay on hooks, some being processed on floors below. He then got out after he pulled in to open the back to get a bit of a taste before making tonight's meat, as he had done many many times before. However, to his surprise, nothing was there. He then wondered, "What? But how? I know I hit her with iron knives, there's no way she should have the strength to fight back or escape...unless..." He thought about the moondust. He then realized that he had been had. He then heard the sound of a nearby door opening in his lair. He realized he had been tricked and became enraged, "That vile fairy...that used an illusion to trick me! They must know of my secret technique! I must hunt them down and find them. Luckily, I can smell the scent of the blood from that first hit." He then barged through the door with a lot of force, though Indumati herself set a chair up to try and slow him down, but that wouldn't stop The Butcher as he forced his way through and drew his knife. He shouted down the halls as he looked for her, "Where are you, you little fairy?!? I can smell your blood. You can't run forever!" He then threw a knife towards Indumati's direction. Indumati noted that though she was hiding, he really could smell her somehow...it must be because of her blood leaking from her cheek. However, she backed away as she calculated the range of his knife and backed around a corner to avoid it. The Butcher saw this and then said, "Very clever. But that won't save you for much longer. After all, I know this place like the back of my hand." He then turned a corner and charged towards her with a knife while the traps of the place swung around-large knives and saws trying to slice into Indumati as she navigated the maze closer to his heart. He grabbed a nearby steel drum and threw it in her direction, which she avoided, casting a healing light on her wound as she did so. He then ran towards her and swung his knife towards her, but couldn't smell her anymore. The Butcher then said, "You can run, but you can't hide. Besides, I have the only key to where my key is on me. You won't be able to get there. After all, how are you going to overpower me and my invulnerable body, huh?" Indumati shot a nearby pipe with water and shot a nearby wire down to make it electrical. The Butcher however laughed at this and said, "What part of immortal body don't you understand, little fairy?" as he advanced through it, only for Indumati to freeze the floor around him so that he slipped and fell despite his huge frame. Indumati flew over him and quickly grabbed the key, while the Butcher quickly smashed the ice with his knife and used the momentum of his weight and movement to hurl himself towards her to swing towards her twice, but she quickly used her staff to counter his momentum with her physical enhancement to throw him back. He got up quickly and was enraged as she created illusions to create copies and sent them in multiple directions at a 3 way split. However, The Butcher quickly got up and said, "I know where you're going anyway. That's no secret to me." Before he activated a trap on the wall, to create a maze of knives and saws in the way and make mines appear from the floor as he advanced without pain or injury through them in hot pursuit. He then shuttered a door to block her path to the heart room, while he threw his knives after her. Indumati saw that behind her was a giant blended of iron rotating knives that would surely cut her to pieces...and the only other way was past The Butcher, who was now standing before her. She let out some moondust on him, which he didn't notice and he threw a knife. She blocked one, only for it to spin around towards her. He then threw another towards her leg. She used her light bullets to snap the strings and break the knives' path mid-flight, but The Butcher soon came towards her and did a rush into a command grab and soon had her by her neck. He smiled a big sadistic smile and then said, "You gave me more trouble than I thought, but it's over now." He then tossed her into the blended and laughed a mocking sadistic knife as Indumati was being cut and shredded by the blender. He then said, "I need to go get my prize." He then quickly left, still fuming over the encounter, to get her from the blender's bottom.
When the cost was clear, Indumati left her illusionary state of invisibility. It was a good thing that she took a bit of her blood on her stocking and wrapped it in one of her artificial changings to trick him. She soon used an electromagnetic field to open the door gently and headed towards where The Butcher's heart was. She wasn't even sure that he even noticed she had his key.
The Butcher, when he went to the Blender, noticed there was a piece of a bloodied stocking wrapped around a bunch of twigs and sticks, and Indumati herself was nowhere to be found. He then said, "At least, I still have-" He then noticed his keychain was gone as well. He then said, "What?!? I have to find her pronto! She's made a fool of me again!" He then angrily stormed off towards the room for his heart. He wanted to sample her blood, but it was too mixed with too many other pigs so he couldn't tell if it was hers or not! Not to mention most of it was an illusion anyway! He ran in hot pursuit to his heart's room, only...to find the door already open! He then said, "No, no, no, no, no!" as he rushed for the door and swung it open!
Indumati was standing there, next to his heart, and she said, "You know, it's true that the Koschei Technique has many strengths that make it troublesome to deal with. However, it has 3 major weaknesses, the first is while is does make your body invulnerable and immortal, it doesn't protect your mind. I've been using illusions all night to trick it into seeing false things to keep you off my trial." The Butcher was angry and said, furiously, "And the second?" Indumati then took up his heart and said, "The 2nd? If where to destroy this heart of yours, you will die, regardless of how strong your body is, which is why most people in the Fairy Realm opt not to use it due to this risk." The Butcher laughed incredulously at Indumati, "You wouldn't do that. You're a hero, not a killer. You lack the ability or the willingness to kill. Me, however? I've been killing and turning pigs like you into meat for a very very long time." Indumati scattered a bit of moondust and said, "You're right, I wouldn't. But why have you been doing this?" The Butcher then said, "It's just business. Nothing personal or more than that. After all, what people don't know they're eating at my restaurant won't hurt them. In fact, they quite like it." Indumati then said, "Disgusting..." The Butcher however, sharpened his knives and threw one for her, which struck in a vital point on her leg, which caused Indumati to stagger and fall. The Butcher then laughed and then advanced and said, "You should have crushed my heart while you had the chance. Because now, you're just another lamb to the slaughter." He then aimed a bite for Indumati, however, when he bit down, he felt something wasn't right. And suddenly, he realized, he was actually eating his heart, and that made The Butcher nervous. Indumati then said, "There is another weakness, remember? If the heart and the body of the one who used the Koschei technique become as one again, the person becomes mortal once more. And that makes them vulnerable once again. Not only that, but the technique also cannot be done to you or by you again if that occurs." The Butcher than said. shocked and feeling his strength and immortal body become live with color and heavy with weakness once more, "What?!? But how?!?" Indumati then said, "The moondust from my wings. I have been scattering it every so often, you know? It's been affecting your mind each time. You were fighting phantoms for a while. It was easy to trick you into this scenario." The Butcher then laughed and said, "Yeah, and? Like I said, you are not a killer!" Indumati then replied and stated, "I never needed to do that, not tonight. And now, it's over. In truth, I could have stopped you right from the start, but I needed to deal with the technique, as well as let you lead me to your lair. To both make it easier for the police to deal with you, and to get evidence of your activity." She then hit his eyes with a different spell that caused him to become woozy as he tried to get up and maintain his stamina and swung weakly at her as she dodged and deflected his blows and he slowly collapsed, asleep...for however long Indumati wanted. Indumati later made sure The Butcher was bound in chains of light that sapped his strength and stamina from him and made an anonymous call to The Police of The City of St. Joan.
The Police were creeped out by the call, one of the lead detectives, Mr. Ruff Cuffem, said to his mean, "This is a very disturbing call, but it matches many of the missing persons reports we've been getting." They opened the factory up and found many dead bodies that made one of the rookies of Ruff's team gag. Not to mention The Butcher himself, bound and captive and asleep. Mr. Ruff than said, "Who could have done this? No one hooman, that's for sure. It could be our mysterious caller..." He quickly took The Butcher into custody, and the police took photos and videos and took notes and collected evidence, including The Butcher's connection to a deli downtown known as "Mr. Baker's Veal and Beef." Which made Mr. Ruff gag a bit, knowing what the people had truly been eating...and about the evidence of Mr. Baker's actions. The Butcher, or rather, Mr. Baker Mann, was loaded up and taken into custody and sent to the new "Fairyland Prison for Bad Guys and Monsters" to contain him in between the trial that would inevitably come. Mr. Ruff looked out into the night, and thought he saw something like a bat in the sky above...but he could of sworn it was a humanoid. He thought maybe it was just one of the many tulpa descendants in the city...though he hoped it was a sign of good things to come.
Indumati, in the meantime, helped her mom on the Moon to repair and wash her outfit to keep it clean. Her mom then said, "You did something dangerous, didn't you?" Indumati then said, "I had to." She told her mom about The Butcher and his lair. Her mom then said, "I see...in that case, I am proud of you, for stopping such a horrible man." Indumati then said, "Sorry about the bloodstains." Her mom smiled and said, "It's fine, for you, anything." Luna then flew on by in both of their sight, beyond the ordinary, and said to Indumati, "Not bad. However, there are greater challenges to come on this path." Indumati then said, "I shall do what I can to meet them all." Luna then said, "I am happy you've come so far...now, have a good night, okay?" Indumati then said, "And sweet dreams for all." before completing her chores in the ruins of the moon civilization's castle and then turning in for tomorrow...
End of Part 1.