The Ashen Fortress

[Dawnika Snow]

The vigilante slumped up from her sleep. It had been a whole week now and her wounds had finally closed up and healed. The Omniverse was amazing, like it had its own physics. Prime could bend the physics of the world to an extent but were still subject to the rules. It was like she was a demi-god, a very mundane demi-god.

The wounds that were covered by her thick brown hair had vanished within a week’s time. Of course the burn scar that peeked over her shoulder was still there-

Wait a second. Brown? Brown?

Where did her beautiful black hair go? What the hell happened? The vigilante confusingly stumbled out of bed and to a mirror as quickly as possible.

Her hair barely reached her shoulders. Unacceptable.

Stomping out of the bathroom quickly, alerting her guard dog who had been soundly sleeping on the floor, she fell into the computer chair and pulled her Omnilium glove out of the desk drawer. It slipped through her fingers soundly and comfortably. She put her hand to her head and started to quietly chant in a worried tone.

“Black hair, black hair, black hair.” As she looked in the small desk mirror to see if her hair was changing back, all she saw was the reason she dyed her hair black in the first place. Her father’s reflection. His dark brown hair and blue eyes, she was the spitting image of him as much as he protested that Dawn had grown to look more like her mother than he himself. Colorless shade flooded over the assassin’s head. Black was a lifeless shade, it held no remorse or sympathy, just like her past. It was why she chose black. Her hair stayed short, but once again the blackness returned.

Dawn let out a sigh of relief. Seeing her hair like it was was too much to handle. Any memories of that day burned at her back like a constant fire had marked on her back. A constant flame of guilt that could not be extinguished.

A few deep breaths. Calming and soothing they were. Dawn rubbed the back of her head and looked down at her phone then to her computer.

“I need to kill something.” She muttered as she booted up her computer. The screen flashed on with a welcoming light, illuminating the otherwise dark room. She scrolled through the Omniverse’s Web-board, er Dataverse they called it, apparently this is where one can learn of bounties and gutter trash Primes. Sluggishly leaning over the desk, she scrolled through the bounty board. Most of the primes here looked armed to the teeth or like cartoon characters. ‘Mickey Mouse’? What? The picture was an actual anthropomorphic mouse. The wheel of the mouse spun with a zip sound.

’Okor Paleblood’. In his picture he looked like a walking suit of fleshy disease incarnate. What was visible of his skin looked rotted beyond decay. Just looking at the picture on the boards made Dawn sick.

“Okay,” she muttered nauseously, “Not Dumpster-Man.”

Keep scrolling. Had to be someone in here who was inherently normal.

‘Luci’? Her skin is colored in different shades of paint. Dawn stared at her screen and let out a disgruntled sigh. Still the most normal of all these people.

’Doomguy’ Seems like a rather melodramatic name. Or it did until she looked at the picture. This dude looked loaded, and Dawn though she was carrying a pretty heavy arsenal. No. Way.

The psychopaths of this world, jeez. Just when she thought there was no one here that she could handle, she came across one last bounty.

’King Ghidorah’ Recently placed by the Empire, there was actually no picture available, just a description of him. A draconian. He seemed like her best bet.

The vigilante closed down the computer and stood from her chair. Rogue perked up at her master as she stood, tail wagging behind her with glee. She ran her hand through the siberian husky and gave her a quick kiss on the head.

“Sorry Rogue, you can’t come for this one. Too dangerous. I can’t lose you.” She said. “Stay in Epsilon for now. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get some action too.” The dog let out a disappointed whimper as her owner filled up the bowl of food.

“I should really get this to feed you automatically.” She said, using her omnilium to create a compartment in Rogue’s food and water bowls. It would feed automatically at certain times in the day. “There.” The dog was pleased with this.

The assassin pulled out a change of clothes. She would be fighting a dragon. More fucking claws. Why did everything in this world insist on tearing off her clothing? She put on a strapless black dress that didn’t even reach her mid-thigh with a pair of tight, short shorts underneath then looked for her sniper.

“Rogue, Delta. Sniper missing.” The dog let out a playful bark as she moved to the closet and sat. That means she found it. The dog had better memory than she did, and hers was eidetic. The sniper was stored up on a shelf in above her clothes, along with the armor she had summoned. She quickly donned her equipment and readied to leave.

As always, traveling through the Ashen Steppes would probably be the hardest part of her journey. King Ghidorah was last seen at the fountain in the Nexus so that would be her destination. Dawn was an amazing tracker, it would be difficult to evade her for long. Without much trouble, she crossed the perilous wastes of lava and arrived at the Nexus gate. Let the agoraphobia kick in.