Blessed by Night

Malachi's three silent captives unsurprisingly looked around for a possible route of escape, but found nothing in the end.

All the while he watched them calculatively, with all of the poise and grace of a jungle cat.

"Now, I'm real curious here. Was this a regular run of the mill assassination attempt, or did you guys have something bigger in mind?"

For some reason, the three didn't seem like they were in a real captive mood.

Though Malachi was sure he didn't understand why.

Just as it seemed he was going to have to take a more violent approach to interrogation, his three captives spoke in unison using a strange robotic voice.

"Mission has been designated as a tentative success. As all means of escape have been compromised, units J-1842, D-2633, and T-7895 will undergo protocol two. Transferring data now."

Science fiction was never Mal's favorite genre, but he had observed enough of it to follow what was about to happen.

True to his suspicions, he witnessed the three strange men begin to glow from the inside out.

"Cover us, boss!" Zazu cowered.

"What are you worried about? You can't die anyway..."

"Oh, right."

Without putting up a singe barrier of any kind, Mal and Zazu sat and watched as the top of the building was rocked by an explosion.

-

Arias groggily opened his eyes after a lengthy period of time spent unconscious.

At first observation, he was in his own bed back at home; nestled right next to his 'Hello Kitty' plushie and 'He-Man' action figure.

It would've been a pretty nice and cosy way to wake up if he didn't have a nasty ache in his chest and hear some slurping sounds coming from the foot of his bed.

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With some difficulty, he craned his neck upwards to stare at his bedroom door, or more specifically, the two attractive bodies plastered against it.

Malachi and Luna were wrapped in a rather hot and heavy embrace as if they were right in the privacy their own room.

Luna's butt was given a firm squeeze that resulted in her releasing a small moan into Malachi's mouth, and Arias had finally seen enough.

"What the hell are you two doing?!"

The couple unsurprisingly jolted from their lip lock and scrambled to return to normalcy.

"Oh don't let me break up your happy coupling." Arias replied sarcastically. "I think the bodega down the block has condoms if you want me to grab you some."

"We're a little past the condom stage in our relationship, but thank you for the offer." Luna rolled her eyes.

A sudden realization dawned upon Malachi. "I don't think we've ever used a condom though, babe..."

Now, Luna too seemed embarrassed that small fact had been brought to light.

"...T-That's your fault. You stuck it in before I had a chance to ask you to grab one."

In truth, Malachi was the first man Luna had ever slept with. She kind of just forgot that condoms were supposed to be apart of the whole ordeal because she was swept up in the mood.

She wouldn't have thought to ask for one even if she saw it fall out of his back pocket.

Meanwhile, Arias was regretting even bringing up this conversation in the first place.

"I-I actually don't care if you're practicing safe sex or not. Can you just tell me why the hell you're in my roo-"

*Click!*

The bedroom door suddenly opened and Morgan stepped inside; chewing on a frozen waffle.

"Oh, he's up. Why didn't you grab us?"

Morgan noticed the fact that Luna's lipgloss was missing and Mal was now conveniently wearing half of it.

"...Never mind." he shook his head.

"Bitch, is that one of my 'Eggo's'?!" Arias yelled.

"Uh-huh." Morgan took an absolutely huge bite of the waffle out of spite.

Before Arias could muster any kind of retort, another face poked their way into the door. This time, it was the lovely Bianca.

"You guys are real rowdy in here. Try not to wake up the cripple."

"I-I am not crippled!" Arias complained.

"Oh, he's already up." Bianca pulled out a hot pocket from behind the door and began munching.

"WHY ARE ALL OF YOU RAIDING MY FRIDGE!?" Arias roared.

Joanne suddenly poked her head inside as well.

"Because my daughter and Nadine already emptied your liquor cabinet."

"T-That's just... Ugh!! Why are you even in my apartment!?"

"You think we were going to let you run off and avoid us when you got patched up? 'Fraid not, cupcake." Morgan dismissed. "We wanted to be right here when you woke up."

"Kinda glad it only took a few hours for that." Mal yawned. "I was worried we'd have to spend the night here in shifts..."

Arias suddenly realized that something about this situation was amiss.

"My people would have never allowed you to get this much access to me while I was vulnerable. Nor would they have left me alone in this sort of condition. What have you done to them..?" Arias asked dangerously.

Before any of them could tell him about the dozens of security personnel asleep in the hallway, Arias noticed that something within his body was violently amiss.

He was definitely agitated, and his blood pressure was even starting to rise, but the usual glowing of his eyes and hair never came to him.

"What the hell...? My powers are..."

A sudden clinking sound drew his attention.

When he looked up, Bianca was jingling a small plastic bag with a bullet inside.

"You were shot with a 338 Lapua Magnum bullet re-designed to act like an exploding shell.

Once inside you, the bullet seems to have released a sort of powder comprised of a variety of minerals into your body.

I'm still waiting to get the results of some samples back, but they all seem to be ones that have the property of distorting light.

They're running around in your body right now, since they're too small for us to just pluck out. Seems like they're interfering with your powers a bit.

So, like I said earlier... You're a cripple. At least until you're able to pass all of that shit out of your body."

Arias looked down at his own hands in horror. A feeling of weakness returned to him that he hadn't known in a very, very long time.

Unsurprisingly, he had a very unbecoming reaction.

"Those BASTARDS..! They are conniving, unscrupulous, parasitic little diseases upon the earth!" Arias roared.

"Yes, yes... We were all sure you would say something like that." Morgan waived his hand dismissively.

"You would still disagree!? After all that has transpired tonight??"

"Not... entirely." Morgan admitted.

"But we can't let the whole of either side burn down because we have some disagreements. Compassion must guide our way, or else we would all be damned for the acts we would commit against each other."

Arias sneered venomously.

"A beautiful ideal, but one surely not based in reality. Humans.. are.. animals. Pretending that they are not will only leave you blind to their screams, their machinations... their cruelty."

"And look at you, who has never let your guard down with them for even a second still ended up with a bullet through your chest and your battery depleted. So does it really matter if I play a little make believe?"

Arias admittedly fell silent at this as he glared.

Malachi suddenly clicked his teeth. "We can worry about these questions of morality and civil wars later..." he suddenly paused as he stared at Arias. "And trust me nephew, we will get to that."

Arias' glare became uglier still.

Malachi created a chair from the shadows and sat down beside the golden one's bed.

"For right now, I just want to know why three suicidal robots set only that building on fire to get your attention. I think that's much more pressing now, don't you?"