[Jaden Wolf]

Lantern

In the darkening sky above the slums, a ferrikoon flew while grooming her fur with her paws. After a few minutes, she looked up at the tree covered horizon, where day was fading to night as the sun left. Ah, her favourite time...suddenly she twisted in the air, hissing in frustration. Yes, how Lantern loved the night, but curse this Light chain! A prisoner in her own world! Curse Jaden, who bound her own creatures!

Realizing that her fur was begining to bristle and stick out in many directions, Lantern gave a small wail of dispair and set to work smoothing it all down. Yes, this was the only good thing of being in this form, such lovely colours. While being a shadow gave her smoother "fur", she had to admit that the colour was...well, entirely black, duh. That didn't provide any contrast with her black eyes...

Great, her mind was wandering...how boring. She needed something to do, someone to taunt or irritate. Ah, she could stop by in the Slums. Angling her wings, she swooped down to the tops of the rundown buildings that exsisted here.

[potterchic]

Hollow Chimerantula

He had escaped his hutch earlier that morining, when Arianna had come with the rat poison. He had run off the property, as quickly as he could with his eight legs. He knew no one was following him. Arianna was probably glad he got away. But still, how did he know she wasn't sending one of those stupid kasugas after him? They wouldn't be able to catch him, but once she noticed that he'd stuck around long enough to swipe enough keysrones to live on for the month...

Titanus wandered into the Slums. It wasn't really the cleanest of towns, but then again, he wasn't the cleanest of beings. It couldn't be that bad of a place for him to stick around at, as long as he didn't encounter too many of those stupid snickies. They were disgusting, it was as simple as that. Besides, when he went back to Fire Dance Mansion he didn't want an ugly snail with spikes as proof that he went all the way to the slums.

He  scuttered down the streets, looking for a place to go and pick up a meal. He COULD just catch a few small, insect-like pets, but he had money. Maybe they'd have better poisons here... The place was shady enough... He decided he'd look through the first interesting store he saw in this dump.

[Jaden Wolf]

After finding a building that wasn't entirely filthy and looked like it wouldn't collapse, Lantern set down gently. Then some movement below caught her eye. A chimerantula, huh? Lantern sighed. She wasn't too fond of those creepy-crawlers, disgusting things. Yet it was the only thing that was brave enough to wander the slums at night. She watched quietly as it passed the store across from her, her very dark green eyes glinting in the light of the rising moon.

Silently, she spread her wings and took to the air, hovering above the building. One minute she was there, the next she touched ground in front of the creature. She was so fast in the dark; it seemed to be one of the few abilities she could retain from her Shadow self. Turning, she smiled at the chimerantula, her tail tip coming up to rest on the side of her face. A gleam of vanity flashed in her eyes as she regarded the creature; a filthy, disgusting creature of Light in her eyes.

[potterchic]

Titanus jumped back. Some kind of flying rodent had jumped in front of him. Considering biting it, he approached. He opened his mandibles, ready to lunge at any moment. He slowly approached, trying to back it against a wall or something. "What're you supposed to be? A flying weasel?" he sneered. He proceeded with his proccess of advancing. He wasn't going to do much, and he knew it. That thing could fly away at any moment. Still, this could be fun. Maybe if he was lucky, he'd figure out what rodent tasted like.

[Jaden Wolf]

A smirk appeared on Lantern's face as the chimerantula jumped, then it quickly vanished and was replaced by a snarl. "Haven't you ever seen a Ferrikoon before, mush-brain!?" Flying weasel!? Oh, Lantern wouldn't take that sitting down! Realizing that she just called herself a ferrikoon, she quickly corrected herself. "Actually, I'm not even a ferrikoon! I'm a Shadow Being! So just try and take a bite out of me; I don't think you could!" As she spok-er...spat at the creature, Lantern's fur grew slightly darker, and just as it did, the band on her tail began to glow. Mentally, she reminded herself not to attempt going completely Shadow, as she hated the pain the band brought upon her.

[potterchic]

"Whatever. You're still a rodent." A rodent is a rodent, and  rodents are plain out annoying. He felt venom well up in his mouth, and quickly swallowed it. He was, of course, immune to all poisons, as a survival mechanism. He just hoped this thing didn't have anything like acid or other weapons. With it being able to fly, anything else would make it win for sure. That is, if he couldn't dodge it... He heard the creature's remark about shadow creatures, and, provoked, lunged at it.

[Jaden Wolf]

Rodent!? Hearing this, Lantern gave a loud angered shriek. Her fur bristled and her now-black fangs were bared. Again she reminded herself of restraint as the band grew slightly brighter in response to her black mouth and darkening eyes. As the chimerantula lunged at her, she opened her wings and lept over it. Landing on the ground, she wheeled around and attempted to bite the irritating insect. For an instant, her eyes were completely black, but after a bright flash from the band, they went back to normal.

[potterchic]

He felt the thing rip some flesh off of his abdomen, and quickly began spitting venom that was rapidly being produced in his mouth. He watched the monster start going black at strange moments. Great. Look what you've gotten yourself into NOW, Titan. This thing has dark power, and a lot of it. Know what'cha gonna do? He jumped at the glowing band at the base of her tail, thinking the thing was some kind of bracelet that gave Lantern power.

((I just considered Lanterns name for the first time, and realized how ironic it is.))

[Jaden Wolf]

((Exactly. xD))

Tasting flash in her mouth, Lantern smiled but quickly spat it out. Disgusting. Quickly, she ducked as some venom came flying at her. She wasn't sure if she was immune when she was solid and she wasn't about to test it now. She was about to roll away as the insect lunged again at her, but hesitated when she realized where it was aiming. As the chimerantula made contact with the band of light, some sparks flew and a tiny crack appeared, but the object remained intact. Without thinking, Lantern hissed in frustration. Yes, some of her power was released, visible in her nearly-black fur, but the stupid thing was still holding on! Biting it, she snarled, but quickly recoiled as the band flashed. She was fully intent on removing the insistant item, Titan all but forgotten.

[potterchic]

Sparks flew, but Titanus held on, still believing that the band was a source of power. The thing had stopped fighting him! Was it trying to trick him into believing that the band was nothing, and that it didn't care? But that would be a lie, sparks of power had come from it, it should be destroyed. He felt venom well up in his mouth again, and tried to release some of it onto the band. He hoped that it would work as acid would and dissolve the band, and bit down hard onto another place in the band.

[Jaden Wolf]

As the chimerantula spat venom on the band, a large flash followed by a deafening crack signaled a tear in the strange object. Falling to the ground, it clattered against the hard soil and vanished. Delighted, Lantern shot away from Titan, then turned around and gave him a strange and mysterious smile. "Seems a shame to kill you now, after you just freed me." She suddenly detected light at her tail. Looking down, she realized that the scars were still there. She'd never be completely free...but this was enough. Even though she couldn't look like a normal shapeless shadow, she still had most of her powers back. Her body was entirely black now, and a few tendrils of shadow stretched away from her body before detatching and fading into the night air. Free at last!

[potterchic]

"What in the name of the Holy Triumvirate..." How stupid to you get! This has to be one of the oldest tricks in the book! Maybe I should read that book... "Well, if your not going to kill me, you might as well leave now." Her tail was still growing, and his legs burned a little bit from touching the shadow creature, his mouth didn't have as much pain, since that mostly touched to band, but it still hurt. "Well. Go ahead, beat it."

[Jaden Wolf]

It wanted her to leave? Was it frightened? Lantern's eyes glistened when she realized that Titan was in pain. "Are you in pain, insect?" The question was honest despite the natural malice in her voice. She never came into contact with a normal creature before...at least while in her shadow form. Now the two emotions were waging a war within her, though it was unoticable in her features. Curiosity, and evil. Due to the curiousity, she wanted to stick around and ask Titan as many questions as she could, while the evil in her wanted to do what she's always done, be the only one walking away. Of course, she wouldn't kill him, she still had her pride. Killing him after such a favour was unthinkable unless he requested a quick death. As she debated the two, a third nagging thought wedged in. She could just touch him, see his reaction, and if it obviously hurt, she'd leave and find the answer elsewhere.
Somehow that last option didn't survive long.

[potterchic]

"Of course it hurts! What'd you do, rub acid into your fur! You couldn't make it poison, could you?!" he spat, and worked up as much venom as he could, trying to wash away some of the pain. He scuttled over to a shelf in the shop, hiding under it while his ripped abdomen burned. "If you're going to kill me, you'd better do it before I recover." he smiled wryly. "Unless you're waiting for a nice little game of cat and mouse?"

[Jaden Wolf]

((Sorry for not replying. I was suffering from massive Writer's Block...))

Lantern's...er, form bristled, creating little spikes along her black figure. This bug was getting on her nerves. She hissed something in her native languange and seemed to relax. "Well Insect, who are you thinking would be the cat? I honestly hope you're not getting it into your tiny head that you're stronger than me?" Her eyes narrowed, watching Titan. "By the way, I don't believe I ever told you who I was. Among shadows, I should think I'm well known, but I don't expect a creature of Light as lowly as you to know. I am Lantern, mate of Demitri, and one of the more powerful creatures of the Dark Shadows. Unfortunately, the light on my tail has weakened me, so I have no guarentee that you'll see the power that made me so infamous among my kind." Vainly, she curled her tail around her, the black figure coated in wisps of shadow, creating a sort of veiled look about her. No way was she leaving now, her interest was sparked.