Chapter Nineteen

Kyle inhaled deeply, taking in the familiar scents. It felt good to be back home. He took off his coat and hung it on a nearby hook, looking at Dimitri. Dimitri huffed, flipping his coat off of him to hold it on his hand, tense.

“Should I?” He asked.

Kyle nodded, "There's the hooks on the wall and a coat rack at the end of the hall."

“Alright thanks,” He breathed, then hobbled through the hallway. As Kyle was alone, he heard a catchy knock on the door. It seemed vaguely familiar. Curious, he looked through the peephole to see who could be knocking.

It was a busty, blond haired woman with a messy ponytail and worn-out clothes. Her eyes looked faded, having little eye bags under her eye bags. Alongside her was a boy, almost glowing in the dark with neon hair along with neon attire. He held some sort of staff embedded with some unearthly foreign language.

Still cautious, he kept the door closed. "Who's there?" he asked, still looking through the peephole. He then realized he had forgot to turn the turrets back on before he went inside, mentally kicking himself.

“This is Doctor Kenneth! Open the door!” the woman demanded.

Kyle rolled his eyes, "I'm opening the door, not because you demanded me to, but because I trust the name." With those words he opened the door.

She panted and slammed the door tight along with the neon-colored boy. With this she nearly collapsed against the boy’s arms. “Thank you Mackenzie.”

“Kyle! Who is at the door?” Dimitri echoed inquisitively.

“It's your sister, and some glow boy," Kyle explained, hollering over his shoulder.

There was shuffling in the hallway. The shuffling gradually became crashing and crack, a long with a long winded curse.

The glow boy, Mackenzie, immediately retreated to shoving his fingers in her ears, causing the scientist to fall. Kyle reflexively dove to catch the scientist, breaking her fall with his arms. However judging by the grunt he heard from her, his armored gauntlets still probably hurt a bit.

"Sorry about that," Kyle apologized.

Dr. Kenneth’s neck jerked from the impact, groaning in pain while massaging it back to health, “It’s fine…” she bluffed.

Pounding footsteps were rushing towards the bundle of people by the door. “Blanche?”

“Hi. I forgive you. Don’t do it again. People were mad at you when I left, but I don’t know if they calmed down. Yes, I found my assistant after all these years.” She sassed “Any more questions.”

Dimitri, defeatedly shook his head.

“Good,” She said, adjusting her view towards Kyle. “Is this some sort of strong hold?”

Kyle shrugged, helping Blanche to her feet. "More or less," he admitted.

“I have a few more friends-- and by a few I mean two that are in my roster of people I should protect. Do you think we could squeeze them in?”

Dimitri shook his head enthusiastically.

Kyle nodded, "I have plenty of room here for others."

Dimitri huffed and slapped the couch, sitting down on it with his face covered.

“Thaaaank you~” Blanche sang. She turned to Mackenzie, “Mack?”

“I’ll get them right away,” Mack confirmed.

“You realize they may never forgive me, yeah?” Dimitri asked, rubbing his face with his forefingers , “Especially Ametsu.”

“I don’t know how they feel about you. I ran as fast as I could to find you,” Blanche admitted. “I can’t give you guarantee if your friends forgave you or not, but I do know that we can’t afford arguments in armageddon.” She brushed her hair back with her hand, looking intently at her brother.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Dimitri groaned, suddenly peeking up. “Blankie? What ya got there?”

“Oh… Ametsu gave me these feathers,” she replied, pulling them out.

Suddenly remembering his own feather, Kyle spoke up. "She gave me one as well, it powers my suit somehow." Kyle tapped his chestplate with his index finger for emphasis, making a small ting.

“These angel feathers are not only to power up any weapons and armor you possess, which is probably recommended, they also give what she calls-- 'holy powers,' enough to kill beasts-- aka the angels.”

“Is that what Nyx calls them?” Dimitri huffs, shuddering.

“Yes. That’s why we need the others to come here. We’ll survive long enough to keep what may be taken from us,” She claimed, “We can’t bring back what is lost, but we can fight back before all is taken from us.”

Dimtri nodded, then shook his head, standing up after a moment, “Kyle created his armor, do you think you can make more for us?”

Kyle smiled, "Indeed I can. I own my own private workshop where I make things like armor and weapons."

“Why do you have that in the first place? Did you know this would happen?” Dimitri muttered.

“Doesn’t matter!” Blanche exclaimed, “We need to hunker down until they come in. If we don’t die, it hardly matters.”

“Ugh… fine.” Dimitri said.

"Follow me," Kyle exclaimed, leading them to his cellar and opening the door to his bunker, "I've got accommodations for you all to stay in while I forge us some weapons. But first, I need to take this thing off: can hardly feel my toes."