Angel Monarch

The gasoline near the dying robot instantly ignited. Luckily the warehouse was large enough for them to be about 20 meters away from the point of ignition.

The problem was that this gave them a maximum of two seconds to get out of there.

Sera summoned her wings and grabbed the two closest person near her, Sarah and Will. Faith would have been closer than Will, but she was already in her shadow form. Hellfire held Clockwork and Bea. Lucy turned into her eagle form and Vicky was in her spirit state.

Flying towards the nearest window she struggled carrying two person at the same time, behind her the robots which had concentrated gas still in them began exploding. This spread the fire even faster and as it turned out her wings had a weakness... Fire.

Her left wings suddenly burst into flames and she screamed from the pain, but didn't stop. Will and Sarah reacted quickly and summoned water to put out the fire.

The blackened feathers quickly regained their pristine white shine and the pain stopped.

The explosions ruined the building's structural integrity and it started to collapse, but that didn't matter because Sera already reached the window. First Sarah went outside, then Will and finally her... At least she tried to.

They never had actual time to explore the warehouse. Inside there were a few barrels with some weird markings on its side, it looked like a circular object exploding...

Whatever was in those barrels, when the fire reached it and melted the corroded metal... The building exploded.

Sera instead of safely climbing out the window, flew through a wall with a wall of fire quickly approaching behind her. The explosion's power was so strong, it sent her above the surrounding buildings, then she started falling and rapidly approaching the ground.

Before hitting her head on concreate at terminal velocity, large leaves grew out of the buildings and every time she hit one it cushioned her fall, slowing it down more and more. When she finally reached the ground she landed on a bed made from leaves, vines and all sort of natural soft material.

Bea stood next to her looking all concerned and soon Vicky appeared from the ether as well.

"Damn... That hurt... Couldn't find something more comfortable... To help with my landing..." Said Sera between coughs and laughter, she was perfectly fine only a little banged up and really tired.

She just closed her eyes and snuggled in between the leaves, using them as a blanket.

"You are very shameless, you know that?!" Bea's voice sounded angry, annoyed, worried, happy and cheeky at the same time.

'Just how can she convey so many emotions with one sentence? Or maybe I'm just too good at reading her mood.'

"But isn't that what you like about me?" Said Sera while trying to make herself even more cozy on the makeshift bed.

"Shameless indeed..." Was Bea's only answer, before Sera felt the bed disappearing and the ground hitting her in the face.

"HEY! I was just about to fall asleep!" She said in a faked angry voice, Bea smile at her and said, "That's why I made the bed vanish!"

They looked at one an other with furrowed eyebrows and furious expressions, until they both started laughing. After a while there was a forced throat cleaning sound and they both turned at the same time to see Vicky looking at them confused and annoyed.

'Oh... We forgot about her... Damn, we are really bad parents...'

The two of them looked at each other and collectively sighed. The fun time was over and work needed to be done. They started walking and soon regrouped with the others.

"How did they find use?" Asked Hellfire, it was a great question.

"There is a chance that they can scan the whole city, but its very unlikely since we only go attacked when we stopped moving. Going of by this conclusion, they have found a way to track us, possibly by leaving markings on the ground, for example footsteps."

Clockwork figured it out fast and the others hundred percent agreed with him. Soon they decided a way that could maybe help them hide until they find the Death Dealer.

Sera and Hellfire took them away into a building, since they flew there. No marks were visible on the ground. It would give them at least a little time for scouting.

They spoke for a long time to decide whom to send for scouting, but the choice was obvious for everyone. Collectively they made the decision and everyone agreed... Almost everyone.

"No! I'm not letting my daughter scout out a corrupted with a name Death Dealer. What if it can hurt souls, I won't let you take her!" Bea walked and tried to hold her hand and convince Sera, but she snatched it away and snarled at her. Her hand instead closed around Vicky, like they would try to kidnap her.

"Sera, please listen! She is the only one who has the highest chance of not being noticed! Faith could go as well, but the success of that is even more unlikely..." Said Bea with hurt in her eyes, she didn't want to send her either, but she also trusted Vicky enough to let her go on this mission alone.

Sera didn't have the same views or conviction, she let Vicky go with her right hand and slapped Bea across the face so hard she nearly fell to the ground. Of course she only let her do it, a regular slap could never hit her if she didn't want it too.

"How dare you! I let you be Vicky's mother, let you back into my life after everything... This is how you repay me?! You disgusting piece of..." She managed to stop herself, before something truly regretful came out of her mouth.

Bea's eyes were red and there was only shame and pain on her face. The room turned silent, they were at an impasse. Without Vicky they can't scout, but they couldn't use Vicky, because Sera would probably attack them.

They had a strong friendship, the whole group. At this point most of them considered the others as family, but they all knew that Sera would kill all of them in a heartbeat if they tried to harm Vicky, and likely Bea would help her as well... Also Faith, her devotion never stopped towards Sera.

While all of them were in an emotional battle, Clockwork actually tried to work out a solution.

"What if... What if we used a drone!" Everyone looked at him confused.

"Honey, what are you talking about?" Said Lucy in an annoyed voice, she hated these kinds of inner conflicts.

"Its simple! Vicky can tame creatures right, and those drones have some kind of soul. Which means she could tame a drone and we would use that as a scout!"

The arguing quickly stopped as everyone saw the merit in his idea. It could possibly work and even if it didn't, the only thing in danger would just be a drone. But it all depended on Sera.

'This could work and it is the safest way for exploration.'

"Okay. But how will we know what the drone sees or where to go?"

"I got an idea for that as well." Answered Clockwork and had a mysterious smile on his face, the group just looked at him with raised eyebrows. He looked at all the confused faces and then rolled his eyes while sighing.

"Fine I tell you... I will hack into the drone and use its senor to transmit information straight to my Watch. This way we can see what it sees. Also I will be controlling it in a similar way."

Since none had any further questions or concern they went to work.

Sera and Hellfire flew out, with Faith in his shadow and Vicky floating around as a soul somewhere. They quickly found a small swarm and easily managed to tame a drone.

It took them less than an hour to kidnap one and come back. Now it was only Clockwork they waited for. He opened a panel on the back of the drone, it was full of wires and lights, a lot of things nobody had any clue about... Except Clockwork of course.

He cut some wires, connected others, put something inside it and soon he could control the drone. He perfected the movement so it could fool other drones, then it was time to search for the Death Dealer's location.

The drone flew out of the room through the window and went into the sky. He looked around trying to find signs of drones.

After a couple of minutes he spotted some of them and joined the swarm unnoticed.

This part was really boring... He had to pretend to be just a regular drone, until they decided to return to base. It took hours, when the drones began moving in a specific direction and stopped patrolling... It was already night.

Sera and Bea was currently sleeping on a leaf bed together. After their fight they went into a different room and talked, they weren't arguing or anything since there was no shouting. If the group had to guess, Bea apologized, which cause Sera to apologize as well.

Because they were finally approaching the base, Lucy went and kicked them awake... She thought it was really funny.

The whole group gathered around Clockwork and watched his Watch's screen.

They were approaching a giant block of a building. It had large chimneys on the top which spitted smoke towards the sky. That raised questions in them since they would've easily saw a huge amount of smoke leaving a building, but they realized why they didn't see it.

Whatever is happening inside the building, it was turned off in the day, camouflaging it in the night. A very clever move, very unlike any monster they previously fought.

The building also had windows which showed lights burning and shadows moving inside it. The drone didn't transmit sound, but if Clockwork had to guess there was loud mechanical sounds all around this area. By his judgement this building only served one purpose...

A factory.

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