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Message: The Factory

Well... s**t. Subtlety was lost as Lucky and Nefiriam fell through the window and down into the toy factory below. In a split second decision, the dragon managed to twist around and pull the redhead on top of him before he landed back first into a pile of something soft.

"Are you ok?" she asked in alarm, the one below her taking the brunt of their fall.

Nefiriam laid there dazed for a moment, struggling to regain the wind that was knocked out of him before managing to wheeze out, "If you wanted to top, you could have just asked. Seems more efficient than falling through a window..."

"Let's just call it an elaborate trust exercise," she replied, wiggling off of the dragon so that he could catch his breath without her pushing him further into-were these teddy bears? She picked one up to inspect it. It was clean for the most part, although there was a very faint trace of a sparkle. Stardust. So the black star was after star power in here after all. She brushed her fingers against it while focusing. Instantly the stardust reacted, the star power within activating and transporting the pair out of the pile. She got to her feet as soon as they were on solid ground. They needed to leave before the star she had initially planned on observing first noticed them.

Or, that was her thought. A quick survey of the area revealed a bright orb contrasting in the darkness, the eye of the black star staring directly at them.

"Quite the entrance," the distorted, grating voice mused. Though the black star was barely visible, Lucky managed to make out it crossing its arms before it turned to focus on Nefiriam, "A dragon? Bad luck, this one is no longer a Starlight Princess, if you were in the market."

"Princesses are way too high maintenance. Beautiful maidens? Now they're more fun." He rolled to his feet, breath mostly caught now as he eyed the star.

"I will take your word on it. Now, I do not mean to be rude but could you both leave?" the star spoke. "This has nothing to do with you."

"What nonsense is that?" Lucky snapped. "You were the one who brought the kitten star you injured to the Observatory. If that wasn't enough to draw the prince and I into this mess, you framed the Zurg Alliance and brought a third party fight to Gaia. Now you're back and messing with a toy factory at Christmas time? Why are you pulling Gaia into this mess again?"

"It is merely bad luck for Gaia," it responded. "I was not the first to arrive on this world, after all."

"But you were the first star to cause trouble." She paused before correcting herself, "To this degree. You even had the nerve to attack your own prince."

"That was not I, but the other. A star may be fast, but we cannot be in two places at once."

The redhead paused at the statement, her response dying before it could reach her lips. "That still doesn't explain what is going on," she said, reformulating her response.

"Nor do I intend to do such. Your purpose in this is to be a damsel in need of rescue. I would say you have done a fine job of it, having come in contact with a dragon. But it seems you have made friends with it," it mused. "So I suppose we must wait until the prince gravitates towards you again."

"And if I run?" She was stalling, taking the time to mentally check herself over. A weight in her coat pocket rested a little awkwardly against her leg. Good, it was still there.

"You of all people know it is impossible to hide from the stars."

"Which means I know where you will be even if the prince does not," she pointed out. The star didn't seem impressed with the response and remained silent. She continued. "I don't know what has happened to you, but if you come quietly you may save yourself from worse repercussions. Perhaps we can even help you-"

She did not expect them to take her up on that offer. If anything, she expected some sort of remark. Instead, the star laughed and the redhead felt like covering her ears from the sound. "A lightless former princess still wishes to make such statements? If we wished for your help, we would have approached you long before now. You only serve a purpose, but not one that can't be given to another nor is of any significance here. Do not think yourself untouchable simply because you have no starlight to give."

She tensed at the underlying threat, eyes narrowing. Nefiriam, who had been listening to the exchange, quietly decided to speak. "Do you think fighting a star will be any different from fighting a god?"

She glanced at the dragon in confusion. Was she supposed to know that off the top of her head? On that note, how did he know what a god was capable of? "Do gods have the ability to shoot quasars and-THAT!"

"I know a god that could erase the timeline if they felt like i- already? Okay."

He jumped away as she threw the teddy bear at some of the dark substance that had snaked off the ground and launched toward the pair before diving to the side. From their new vantage points, they saw specks of white appear on the substance as it overtook the bear. Then it evaporated, leaving only the unused slick substance matting the bear's fur. Lucky shuddered before slipping behind some boxes. Nefiriam stayed out in the open.

The star faced him, "My business is star business."

He smirked and easily fell into a boxer's stance, lightly bouncing on his feet as he watched the star. "But this kind of thing is my business! Granted, it's usually dealing with gods trying to start s**t, but a star is an interesting change of pace~" His hands were suddenly engulfed in shadowy flames, "Now enough yappin' and more fightin'." Nefiriam made a quick jabbing motion and a part of the flames lashed out towards the star as a fireball.

The star did not move at the sign of danger. It stood there, calmly, patiently, and just as the flame was about to reach it...

It vanished. Traces of something black with the slightest shimmer floated in the air. "Stardust," Lucky growled. Unlike herself, who could run out, a star produced its own stardust. It could teleport left and right all it wanted, or in this case, right above them on one of the catwalks. Still, she had never seen completely black stardust before. Even dark stars tended to have some purple to it-

Her thought process was cut short as more of the substance tidal waved towards her location in a collection of disgusting tendrils, causing Lucky to flee from her current hiding space as one of them knocked the heavy boxes over. One box broke open, spilling a sea of small rubber bungee balls into the factory. They bounced on and off of everything, one managing to hit a control panel just right. There was a loud whir, and a clank as the machine's conveyor belts came to life and the automated arms began to get to work, grabbing nothing to set in a place that did not exist. Another set hit the walls, and suddenly the area was flooded with blinding light. Between the spots in her vision and dark tendrils, Lucky tried to make out where Nefiriam was. She spotted him, flinching at the sudden light as an agitated noise sounding like a combination of hisses and clicks escaped him. He was trying to locate the star while blinking rapidly to get his eyes to adjust faster. The star seemed focused on him at the moment, and Lucky noticed that the pulse from before was still coming from his body in intervals. She frowned. That was something stars did when granting wishes or luck. What was it doing?

Nefiriam finally squinted upwards after several long moments and spotted the star. "Are all stars this rude?" His eyes finally started adjusting as he tried to come up with his next move. He snagged one of the bungie balls bouncing past and chucked it at the star. "Get back down here, ya coward!"

"It is far more proper to gaze upon a star from afar," the black star retorted, the ball barely missing it and bouncing off of pillar. It turned its attention from the dragon to the ball. Lucky saw the pulse again, this time better visible in the light. It spanned out just enough to touch the ball, which bounced once, then twice, then hit a lever in a nearby forklift. The machine began to roll towards crates of products. She dashed out of hiding towards the rolling machine, jumping on and pulling what she hoped was the right level to turn it off while her own wheels turned. That was definitely its own power, but she would not call that luck by any stretch of the word! She could think about that later; this was getting dangerous. It was just machines turning on and sludge that could absorb star power right now, but what if it got serious? That eye had enough light in it to give off at least one quasar blast. If one of them were caught in it, it would not be pretty.

Taking a deep breath, she dashed away from the now off forklift. Pausing in the wide open she turned to the still facing off pair and cupped her mouth. "Keep it busy," she deliberately yelled out louder than she should, drawing the attention of both of the dragon and the star. With her piece said, she turned and ran. With the lights now on, she had a better view of what was where in the factory. At the far end she could see a stack of supplies, finishing touches that were not used in the presents being shipped out. It was just what she needed.

"What do you think I'm trying to do..?" The dragon muttered as he looked around for a way to get the star to him or him to the star.
His hands shifted slightly into a more scaled and paw like form as he moved towards a support column, claws providing a decent grip and he scurries up to the catwalk.

"Now let's try this again... You hold still and I punch you in the face." The dragon's eyes glowed faintly as shadowy tendrils suddenly lashed out to try and hold the star still.

A grating noise came from the star as it found itself caught. It thrust its hand towards the dragon, releasing a large puff of black stardust at the oncoming dragon. Nefiriam paused for a moment, taken by surprise by the fact that he had actually managed to grab the star. "Whelp." He quickly leaped off the catwalk and on top one of the machines to avoid the cloud of stardust. The shadows tightened around the star in an attempt to at least keep it in one place.

Then the star went silent.

Lucky paused. Silence in nature was never a good thing. She looked back at the star and saw its eye begin to shrink, all of the light compressing to a pinpoint. "Nef, move!" she shouted.

The dragon quickly jumped down and ducked behind a crate. The black star's eye shot a white hot beam, cutting through the shadows and a bit of the catwalk in the process. Around the pair, some of the toys and machines with solar panels activated and released a high pitched noise before shattering, over powered by the star's energy release. The dragon's hands clapped over his ears with a pained hiss as the solar panels of the machine he had been on exploded. He carefully peeked back around the crate to examine the damage, nose wrinkling as he caught the smell of smoke. He glanced up and flicked a small ball of fiery energy up at a sprinkler head, breaking it. Lucky cringed as cold water caused the battlefield to become very wet, very fast. The lights flickered and went out, leaving the pair with only the embers from the waning fires illuminating the area. Desperately, she reached out, snagging something from a nearby table before shoving the item from her pocket inside.

She was about to plan her next move when a hand grasped her upper arm. The chill of the star sank straight though the layers of her clothing. Its eye was practically gone after having released that last blast. She had never felt a star that cold. She might have gotten more heat from a rock buried under the snow outside. Slowly, it began to click. Astraeus had said when they came across this star before, back when they thought it was the victim rather than the culprit, that it looked as if it had burned out. He had meant it as a figure of speech, but now? Now it was a fitting description of the lightless, freezing entity in front of her. "You're a black dwarf," she realized aloud, startling herself. It responded by tightening the grip on her arm. "But, such stars are only hypothetical! How-"

"Powerless damsels should keep to themselves."

Despite her mind reeling at the realization, Lucky smiled bitterly at the reply. "And you're going to keep me in the dark because of that."

"You will have to grow accustomed to that. You no longer have stars as your companions."

"Maybe," she conceded. "By the way, it took you long enough to catch up with me."

"What-?" It didn't get any more out before Lucky smashed the box she had grabbed over the star. The "I AM" potion she had placed inside seeped through the packaging and onto the star. She took care to keep her hand away from the wet part of the package, remembering the warning label from when she she moved it out of Sirius's reach in the first place. She saw the eye try to muster up more light for another blast, but then it vanished, the form quickly changing, shrinking, and sizzling until it fit in Lucky's palm as a crispy strip. The room smelled of bacon. She reached for a clean box, a white one, before shoving the transformed star inside and wrapping it up tight with a yellow ribbon. It would take a while for it to figure out how to transform back, and by then it would be in the custody of the star kingdom.

With the coast now clear, Nefiriam walked to the middle of the room and did a slow spin to take in all the damage. "If you got that star taken care of you might want to scoot on out of here before police or someone gets here... On second thought, just stay by me, I want to talk to you." Was he talking a little louder than normal?

She looked around the area and frowned, pushing a strand of sopping wet hair back. "I figured you would."

"I'll handle the damages here." He replied as if reading her thoughts.

She nodded and motioned for him to follow as she made her way towards the door. With everything else on the fritz, she doubted the security cameras were going to be working either. Might as well take the front door while they could. He followed after her quietly, still idly rubbed at them.
"Are your ears ok? Should we stop by a clinic?" she asked as they walked. She kept a tight grip on the box. Once they caught up with Sirius, she would have the Dog Star take it back to the star kingdom along with a message as to what was inside. Until then it was not leaving her sight
He shook his head, hand dropping back to his side, "I'll be fine, it's just a little ringing. Where do you want to talk?"

"At the moment? Anywhere that's not dark."

He nodded and started walking, pausing after a few steps to scoop up an again protesting Lucky and start running when the sound of sirens reached his ears. He never said when or how he would handle the damages, and apparently now was not when he was planning to do it. Within a short time they were back at the Dragon's Den. He put her down once they were upstairs and grabbed towels from his bathroom, tossing one to her. "So... You start talking and I find something dry for you to wear?"

She began the task of drying her long hair with the towel. "What do you want to know?" Hopefully it was something she could answer. If it had anything to do with that black star- that black dwarf, she would need to wait until Astraeus gave her news. All of her training as the Starlight Princess pointed to those stars not existing. Yet there was no other explanation that she could think of for what she saw. What's more, the star did not deny it, which any star in its right mind would. Being called a black dwarf was nothing short of an insult. Though, that would answer why it was absorbing light; it would not be able to produce it's own...Yet that stardust was black, so wouldn't it be it's own? Meaning it had its own power? She resisted the urge to groan. This was so confusing!

Nefiriam slipped into his bedroom. She could hear him rummaging through drawers and closets before one of his shirts and a pair of pants suddenly was tossed to her. "Can start with why you're banished and whose a** I need to kick."

She never thought she would be relieved to hear that question. "You don't need to kick anyone's a**, I brought this upon myself," she sighed, catching the shirt and pants as she did. She held onto it for a moment, collecting her thoughts and deciding how to respond next. "As for why...I violated what's called the Forgoer's contract."