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As Aurora walked through the ship, Black Angel directed her through different areas, including the Empyrean equivalent of Jeffries Tubes. While she was being led, Redline rounded up Crimson Coil and Gothschilde to restrain them with some zip ties she had on her to the chair Void Wolf called his throne.

 

At one point, she ran up to Aurora while she was checking the wiring. “I’m glad I found you. Not sure we can call out with the cards from inside this ship. I want to go out and check to see what’s going on between Bombshell and Onslaught. Are you going to be okay on your own here, or would you rather come with?”

 

Aurora took a breath since she’d been busy fixing the systems for a while, so engrossed that she’d honestly forgotten about everything else. Black Angel had been speaking with her while she was performing the repairs. She’d explained about the containment spell she’d placed on the dark shard and that she was channeling some of Aurora’s remaining reservoir to maintain it. 

 

Now that Aurora’s powers were once more under her total control, they weren’t bleeding out as they had been since she overexerted herself against Gothschilde.

 

“I’ll stay here. I really want to get this ship working. Let me know if you need me out there and please report for the both of us.” Aurora grinned, showing how eager she was. “Later, I’ll see if it’s possible to allow the signals from the cards to pass through the hull. It may just be something automatically jamming signals.” Aurora looked at Black Angel and then continued with maintenance.

 

“Hey, Angel… is the prison going to perpetually draw on my energy, or is there a way we can make it self-maintaining?”

 

“There may be a way,” Black Angel said, “though, it’s an advanced technique. I’m going to assume that you don’t want to draw on the shard’s power yourself. Doing so would allow you to make a permanent barrier. Notice that I’m not drawing on the shard’s power myself. I’m simply functioning as a relay for our powers to maintain it so you don’t have to think about it.”

 

“Yeah, I noticed. That’s a reason why I’m trusting you. How close are we to being done with these fixes?” Aurora asked.

 

“Well… in terms of checking the systems… around an hour, I’d estimate,” Black Angel said. “An hour of checks… once that’s done, if you want to charge the capacitors from your own energies, you’re looking at about… eight? Some of those hours for rest. The ship is charging off your energy, but not actively. If you want to actively charge, it’ll take less time. That’d be maybe three or four hours of channeling your reserves into the ship. It’s designed to absorb electromagnetic radiation to maintain its capacitors, which is why your communicators aren’t working inside. The transmissions are being eaten.”

 

She crossed the room to sit beside where Aurora was working. “I’m glad that we can be allied for a time, at least, I’d honestly been… getting lonely.”

 

Aurora smiled. “If you really feel that way, I’d like to find a way to become partners on a more permanent basis. I’d rather accept you as part of who I am rather than continue to reject and rebuff you. Do you want to be a hero with me?” Aurora asked as she worked.

 

“I’m not a hero.” Black Angel smiled. “To be frank with you, my goal is still to take your body… if not permanently, for a short time. I promise you that I won’t lie to get advantage over you and once you find that my advice and information is trustworthy, I’d like to have a furlough once or twice so you can see I can be trusted to be in control every now and again. What do you think of that?”

 

Aurora shrugged. “I’ll trust you until I know better. As long as you treat me well, I will do the same with you. You’ve already proved that you have some self-control, not counting when you flailed at Vanguard.”

 

Black Angel winced. “What can I say? My ‘other self’ was right. You are an inspirational figure, even to me and while I can’t say that you would’ve ever affected me this way were I not forced to stay and watch you do everything you do, understanding why, the way you handle your opponents and rivals… that’s what inspires me and shows me another way. Sometime later, when you have time, I’d like to tell you how I got involved with the Oubliette.”

 

Aurora nodded, adjusting the positioning of a node.

 

“But that’s not today,” Black Angel said. “After you finish checking the systems, aside from actual physical breakage in the ship like the front door and some other things I’ve noticed, it should be flightworthy, if not space worthy.”

 

Aurora smiled. “Wonderful. I’d like to get it airbourne so it can be taken somewhere for more extensive repairs than I can handle. I can teach Mocha what you’re sharing if need be. I’m willing to bet that she’ll be spaceworthy in no time. Let’s do this!”

 

Black Angel mused, “I’m not entirely sure how to do it, but you should be able to train the ship to ignore the frequencies of your cards when it draws energy.” She knelt down to embrace Aurora and to her shock for a change, Black Angel’s arms had some substance to them. She could feel the hug. “Let’s finish the system checks.”

As Aurora completed the repairs hours later, Redline returned with a beaten-looking and frustrated Bombshell. “There’s no Onslaught outside, anymore,” Redline said. “And I found this sad girl moping around outside, trying to call us.” Redline laughed. She leaned down to Aurora and whispered, “It’s taken a while to convince her to come see the ship with this mood she’s in.”

 

“Don’t patronize me!” Bombshell grumbled as she sat nearby.

 

Redline shrugged and smiled, saying, “I’m going to go check on our prisoners.”

 

“Alright.” Aurora smiled gratefully at Redline. “I’m nearly done with the more superficial repairs. Right now, I’m performing some final checks on the systems. She won’t go into space, but with work, someday she will. I’ll have my very own place.”

 

The angel finally stopped enthusing long enough to look at Bombshell and ask, “Are you doing alright, Bombshell?”

 

“I couldn’t beat him…” Bombshell pouted. “I can’t blame it on the fact that I’m tired or that I was injured recently… I just couldn’t stop him.”

 

Redline paused at the door. “He wasn’t anywhere to be found when I left the ship… that was just after you sealed that shard thing. Hey, Bombie. You know that Vanguard has a hard time with the guy, right? You don’t…”

 

“I don’t care!” Bombshell yelled. “I’m not Vanguard, damn it! I know that! I’m just tired of getting beat up! Constantly!”

 

Redline smiled in a conciliatory way at Bombshell. “I’ll just go and keep an eye on the prisoners,” she said as she ran off.

 

“Hey, congrats on the spaceship,” Bombshell said, obviously in a poor mood. “Wish I could’ve helped out with your mission, but it turns out I’m still not good enough to put down an arch-hench like that idiot who bashed me nearly unconscious.”

 

Black Angel sighed. “I’m not foolish enough to stand around and take a beating, so obviously I’m not cut out to be a hero like you all.”

 

Oh, I don’t know about that. You put yourself at risk when you defied that creature instead of folding. In the shape we were in, it wasn’t the smart thing to do. Noble and HEROIC. That’s what made me change my mind about you. You showed me your better angel!

 

“I don’t know what Onslaught wanted with the ship,” Aurora said softly. “But by the virtue of the fact that he’s not here anymore… I’d say that you more than contributed to the victory. Any idea where he’s stomped off to?”

 

Bombshell frowned. “Maybe I burned out a cog or something when we fought.” Bombshell threw up her hands. “He slammed me into the ground and crushed me into it until I went limp. When I woke, he was gone, and it’s not like he’s fast. I couldn’t find any trace of his leaving. Maybe I’m losing my edge.” She sighed.

 

“I don’t know about that… you’re pretty badass.” Aurora winked at the bummed hero. “I’m a bit low on energy too right now, but if you need some healing…”

 

Bombshell shook her head. “Nothing’s broken this time, except for my pride.”

 

“Your friend is kind of whiny,” Black Angel said. “She’d obviously hurt him more than he hurt her. Because of that, she’s still here to tell the tale.” With a shrug she poked at Bombshell almost comically as her finger passed through the heroine’s head, through an ear.