*Adora*
"Princess Entrapta will be a total catch for the Rebellion. My mother is going to be so impressed!" Glimmer told with excitement.
Adora raised an eyebrow. "Why is Entrapta so important?"
Bow saddled up next to her and began to speak with a hint of awe.
"She's a brilliant inventor. She makes robots and rehabs old tech left by the First Ones. She's a pretty big deal in the Etherian makers community. Which I am a part of, because I dabble in gadgetry myself."
Adora gave a light smile, easily hearing "Nerd" in Tigra's teasing voice, quickly followed up by her and Catra cackling. The kind that never really meant it as an insult.
The smile slowly went away as she remembered that she likely wouldn't hear that tone either for a long time or at all. Lord, she hoped it would never be the latter when she thought of things along that nature. Yet her soldier training always pointed out that they are her enemies now and would have to fight them again later.
"-ora? Adora?" Glimmer's voice suddenly cut through her thoughts.
"Huh?"
"Are you alright? You had that deep concentration look going on, despite nothing going on at the moment."
Adora hesitated on speaking up, considering that opening up about feelings had been drilled as a weakness her entire life. While she understands that the Rebellion is saying that is the Horde mentality at its worst, she can't help how she feels about that.
Before she could attempt to lie and say that she was thinking of how Entrapta could possibly help, Bow's communication pad chimed with the Brightmoon's alert sound that Bow set up.
He pulled the pad out and pulled up a message sent to him, only for his face to gradually grow paler until he spoke.
"So, we aren't going to be able to stop by Geotan on our way back from recruiting Entrapta." His voice had gone slightly high pitched.
"What? Why? They have the best snacks at good prices. Yes, while I'm rich due to my heritage, I still prefer not to throw money away on overpriced goods." She explained, despite having told Adora that several times since she joined their side months ago.
"More like, it is no longer under Brightmoon's control." He saw them freeze before continuing. "As of two days ago, a Horde force numbering around 50 soldiers had invaded Geotan and killed over half of the soldiers stationed there. While it has not been confirmed, their losses could range anywhere from 20 losses to as low as 5."
"5!? We had around 100 soldiers stationed and you're saying we took heavy losses from a smaller force and barely did anything to them!?" Glimmer exclaimed.
"Who led the assault? Someone with experience should have led the assault if they managed to overcome those odds while Brightmoon soldiers held the home territory." Adora contemplated aloud.
"The ones who had managed to escape told that the commander in charge of this unit was…Force Captain Tigra." His voice turned quieter near the end.
"What?!" Both of them exclaimed.
"Tigra shouldn't be in charge of a garrison of 50 people in a battle for a town with only a few months of experience." Adora spoke aloud, finding what seemed to be holes in the story.
"I can give you the description that was given in this report." Bow offered. "A Magicat woman with dark orange fur, around 5'2" to 5'5", black mane that seemed to be held up in a ponytail, dual yellow scleras, light Horde armor without shoes or gloves, and a slim, black tail."
"Her identity was solidified when a report came in telling that a Force Captain named Tigra had sent an envoy ahead to determine if Brightmoon's soldiers would surrender without a fight or turn the field red. She had given them about half an hour to get the civilians either in a shelter or they would be seen as enemy combatants if fighting took place inside of Geotan. After giving the order that they were to fight, they did and a slaughter occurred. Despite having a 2:1 in troop numbers, the losses were about 7:1 with Brightmoon being the 7. It is believed for the Horde to have lost a measly 10 soldiers in this battle of Geotan."
"We lost about 70 soldiers for only 10 of theirs?" Glimmer muttered in shock, with Adora only slightly less.
Horde battles against the Rebellion had casualties around the standard 5:6 range for either side including the Horde's robots. 5:3 if they were only including sentients from Brightmoon's perspective.
"It is believed that she focuses on close quarter combat with her claws being her strongest weapons, evidenced by destroyed armor on the bodies. Several had lacerations that went through bone with relative ease. It is also suspected that she uses magic to make herself faster with some mages referencing a spell known as Haste. It is a concentration spell though, meaning that she wouldn't be able to be hit heavily without having to recast the spell."
"That explains her speed!" Glimmer gasped. "It explains how she's able to blindside She-Ra and react to me when I teleport near her. With this, we could potentially stop her speed in her tracks."
"Not that easy." Adora shut that idea down. "While that terrifying speed is all that you two have seen, her actual speed is nothing to sneeze at either. Ever since we entered the Academy, other than Catra, there was never someone faster than her around our age group. By the third year of the 9 year Academy, no one in the Academy was faster than her. By graduation, I wouldn't be surprised if she was the fastest person in the Horde."
"Are people really that slow in the Horde?" Bow asked.
"More like she's just that fast. She's always been determined to get faster and control what little amount of magic she has to perfection."
"Can you tell us anything about Tigra and Catra?" Glimmer asked.
"Why Catra?"
"Well, didn't you grow up alongside both of them?" Bow asked this time.
Adora seemed to guard herself. "They had been beside me ever since I found them when I was 4."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'found' them?' I have long since learned that sayings like that aren't usually heard in the Horde?" Glimmer asked.
"That's a saying? I mean I found the two of them inside a cardboard box and decided that they would be my friends."
"They were abandoned?" Bow whispered.
"Yeah, it happens." Adora shrugged, not seeing why Bow reacted that way.
Horde children were abandoned or placed in orphanages quite often. Unwanted from their parents, loss of their parents due to workplace accidents or war deaths, or abandoned by unknown parents who dumped their children near the edge of the Fright Zone.
"Anyways, I found them, they seemed to feel the same way I did but they needed names. So, I suggested their names." Adora spoke with a smile, as if reliving that memory.
"Wait, you gave them their names?" Glimmer clarified. "You named a magicat Catra and the other one's name can be rearranged as Tiger if you replaced the a with an e?"
"I was 4." Adora pointed out. "Did you expect me to know what names would sound good? Or go with names that a 4 year old would come up with?"
"Fair." Glimmer acknowledged.
"Out of the three of us, Catra was the smartest. She always managed to come up with a solution to get what we wanted without getting in too much trouble. She could keep up with Tigra until the 7th year of the Academy. Their claws could tear nearly any metal. Tigra has been kinda overprotective of us, stating that she needs to be fast enough to deal with anything that could threaten us."
Adora could have continued if she didn't almost run into a large amount of rocks.
"Looks like a landslide occurred." Bow pointed out, as if they could have missed it.
…
*Tigra*
…
Tigra groaned lightly at having to deal with all the paperwork necessary for the setting up work needed to actually place Geotan under the Horde's control. This included the civilians, amount of rations, how much space is available for construction, how many soldiers will need to be placed here, and more logistics.
She likes the position of power and respect that Force Captain has granted her over the past few months, but she'd prefer to have someone deal with the paperwork.
'Maybe I should see about hiring someone to handle the paperwork that I don't need to handle.' Tigra thought. 'Maybe in the future. As of now, I don't really know what paperwork would fall under importance to even inform said position to pass on to me.'
Not long after that thought, did she come across another potential con to that idea.
'It would create another place that Rebellion spies could get into and disrupt our chain of command. It would be easy as well. A paper misplaced here, a mistyped report there. It would be easy to create false information and disrupt information I would need to know.'
It still didn't stop the sigh at resigning herself at having to deal with paperwork she wouldn't be adept at handling for quite a bit of time.
A knock came from the other side of the door in her temporary office.<
"Enter."
The door opened outward before Lucy stepped into the room.
"C-Captain. Two other Force Captains and a small squad of Cadets are waiting outside of the East Wall we put up yesterday. We didn't let them in under your orders of not allowing anyone in or out without your clearance."
Tigra nodded as she stood up out of her chair.
"Good. We are still setting things up and the request for the soldiers that will be arriving to help fortify Geotan won't arrive for another two days. You may return to what you were doing beforehand. I'll go see what this small group has to say about why they showed up unannounced."
Tigra walked around her desk before the both of them exited the room.
"So, what's your story?" Tigra asked.
"Well…I was born in the Horde to two mothers: Marron and Aqua. They raised me until I entered the Academy's 5th year. I was informed that they were killed in action during a revolt near Salineas's border. So, I wanted to grow my skills enough to eventually take back the town that took them from me."
"Well, what was the town's name?"
"Scycis." Lucy's hands clenched just as much as her snarl deepened.
[Quest Suggested!]
Reversing a Revolt
After talking with Lucy, you have learned that the city named Scycis had revolted from the Horde's control and took Lucy's parents - Marron and Aqua - from her. Lucy's main goal seems to be revenge against it.
Objective: Retake Scycis for the Horde
Bonus Objective: ???
Rewards: 7000 EXP, Title: [Conqueror] updated, ???
Failure: Potential Death, Loss of Lucy's Reputation
…
Quest Accepted!
"Tell you what. If I'm given the opportunity, I'll let you know if I'm heading in that direction."
Lucy nodded her head, yet her narrowed eyes remained, even as they split off so she could continue what she had been doing before informing her.
Tigra sighed lightly before walking past the citizens that continued working while more soldiers walked around, reminding them of who's banister they fall under now.
Despite only two days passing, she had expected more animosity towards them, especially her. While the rest were soldiers, she was the leader of the invasion force that had taken over. She didn't do anything to hide that fact, yet at worst, they gave her a look when they thought she wouldn't notice.
'I thought there would be more riots, resistance, Lord anything besides this.' She thought. 'Yet, besides a few nasty looks, it would seem as if it was another town that someone had just walked into.'
For now though, she had more important things to think on.
Specifically, the people that one of the soldiers placed to guard the temporary wall were speaking to.
"Come on man, we've been traveling for the last three days. Mostly on foot too." She heard a familiar voice talking.
'That sounds like…but why would she be here?' Tigra thought before getting closer.
"I'm sorry, but it's the commanding Force Captain's order that no one enters or leaves until reinforcements arrive to fortify Geotan." The soldier repeated.
"And how long is that going to be?"
'Lord, I can hear the eyeroll.'
"A commander has already left to inform the Force Captain about your arrival."
"Who is the Force Captain in charge here?" A new voice spoke up. "I don't think it ever came up due to our sudden departure."
She saw the guard notice her.
"Good for you, the Force Captain has arrived."
"You are dismissed, Gutan." Tigra ordered, walking into view of everyone for the first time. "I'll handle these soldiers."
"Tigra!?" A few exclaimed in shock.
"Force Captain Tigra." She stressed. "While I am active, I'm afraid that my rank holds more importance. Now then, who are the ones in charge of your unit and why are you here?"
"That would, uh, be me, Scorpia." A scorpioni woman spoke.
'Lord, she's tall.' Tigra couldn't help but think
Scorpia appeared human-like with physiological features of a scorpion, such as a long scorpion tail, broad pincers, and a bit of carapace on her arms and legs. She is tall, about a foot taller than Tigra. Her lips are black, and her hair is white with an undercut. She wore a red sleeveless shirt marked with a Force Captain badge near her collar, and simple burgundy pants.
"Well, me and Catra."
"Nice to know you haven't forgotten me Scorpia." The sarcasm dripped from behind Scorpia.
Tigra looked over across all of the soldiers and only noticed about 3 people who didn't belong in her old squad, Scorpia excluded.
"For those who need a place to rest, the building with a yellow triangle above the door is a rest spot. There is enough space to house 15 more soldiers with another being built in the coming days. So you don't need to worry about finding a place to sleep."
Tigra turned to walk away but continued to speak.
"For those that wish to speak with me, follow me."
A few moments later, she heard a few steps quickly approaching her from behind.
"So you're the leader that captured Geotan?" Lonnie wanted clarified.
"Yes. You can ask the other soldiers around to easily get stories that continue to prove that I was the leader. Granted, the soldiers were split into three groups so, technically, there were three leaders."
"Did you get hurt?" Kyle asked. "I mean, we received the message that you managed to capture Geotan, despite being at a number disadvantage."
Tigra looked back with a quirked eyebrow.
"No, I didn't get hurt. I moved too quickly for any of them to actually hit me. A few got close, but they started dropping like flies when I moved at full speed."
"How fast are you now?" Rogelio growled out.
"Fast enough that I eliminated about sixty percent of their defending force in about a minute." She informed. "But if you were looking for a comparison, about as fast as the skiffs can go for about two minutes."
"Are you serious?!" Scorpia exclaimed in shock. "Those top out around 140 mph!"
"Told you she was fast." Catra spoke up. "The best part? I know that she's nowhere happy with her speed."
"When you're right, you're right." Tigra nodded. "To me, I am still too slow. Anyways, here's the building I'm working in. Come on in."
After a few minutes, Tigra found herself sitting next to Catra while looking around the group.
"Last I heard, your group was headed to Salineas. I'm guessing that it did not go well if you are here." Tigra deduced.
"It did at first." Catra spoke. "Then She-Ra and her little friend group showed up and started to fix their magical gate that causes us trouble."
"The Sea Gate."
"How come you know about it!? Did you go to this 'Captain' Orientation?" Catra accused.
"There's an orientation?" Tigra tilted her head.
"I only know about the Sea Gate because I've read up on several reasons why we haven't taken over other kingdoms yet. Mystacor is a theoretical kingdom that houses sorcerers and sorceresses but they are hidden by magical means; the Kingdom of Snows is nearly nothing but rock, ice, and snow; we would have to destroy the forest and land around Plumeria to properly take it if we can't get rid of the Princess; Dryl is next to nothing but mountain ranges; the Sea Gate for Salineas; and Brightmoon has the Whispering Woods." Tigra listed off.
"Either way, it was going well until She-Ra fixed the gate, allowing the Princess of Water to fight us and practically sink our ship." Catra huffed. "We found a place to rest for the night and received a message that night, informing us that Geotan had been taken."
Catra placed her hands behind her head and gave a smirk at Tigra.
"Little did we know that it was because of you."
"Honestly, I probably could have taken Geotan alone. I'd likely be lightly injured but I still could have done it. Especially now."
"Why now?" Lonnie asked. "Some new way to go even faster?"
"Close." Tigra stood up and focused on using Flame Armor with about 1000 MP per minute. Enough that she could see how much this would affect her if she could use it for only one minute.
A situation where it was do or die.
Tigra snapped her fingers before she suddenly erupted into flames that made everyone stand up from the suddenness. Yet they caught themselves from jumping at her when she didn't make a noise of shock, pain, or confusion.
"This is a new spell I've been working on. As it looks, I surround myself with fire that will protect me similar to armor. Supposedly, if someone were to hit me with their hand or close combat weapon, they should be hurt by these flames." Tigra explained before she glanced at her affected stats: HP and CON.
…
HP: 8225/8225
CON: 411
Fire Resistance Discovered!]
[Fire Resistance LV 1 (0/100) - Decreases damage taken from fire by 1 %.]
*Note: Flame Armor will continue to go until either user has lost consciousness, willingly stops putting magic in it, or runs out of MP. The spell can also use HP in place of MP at a ratio of 5:1 with the maximum amount being your max base HP but will take fire damage equal to the amount used per minute.
…
'Well, it definitely affects my HP and CON in a large way. Considering the last time I fought Adora, she could do about 2,000 - 2,500 damage in one hit without her sword. I can now actually take a third hit if I use all of my MP without taking into account my resistances.'
The main problem though, would be that it would take 7ish minutes to recover 1000 MP. That would also be assuming that she wouldn't be fighting afterwards as well.
The flames continued burning for a little bit longer before they went out.
Flame Armor gained 2000 EXP
Flame Armor leveled up! LV 1 → LV 5
…
"That is one of my trump cards now." Tigra spoke after a moment. "With that and my speed, I can guarantee that I could have taken Geotan alone."
"How do you keep improving so quickly?" Lonnie asked. "At this point, it just seems supernatural."
"Magic." Tigra rolled her eyes. "Really. I'm learning spells that improve on my specialties and trying to find ways to make my body stronger."
"That's it? It's amazing." Scorpia asked.
"Yeah, she's been like this since we were little." Catra confirmed. "Without all that magic though, she's just quick but could be taken down with a good plan."
"That confident?" Lonnie asked.
"Don't." Tigra cut in before anyone got any funny ideas. "I know you have at least 7 different ways to stop me, most of them likely involve ways to either slow me down or prevent me from moving, right?"
"Yep. Or ways to turn your speed against you."
Tigra nodded. "Now then, how long do you guys plan to stay?"
"Officially, we're already on our way back to the Horde to report the unfortunate news about Salineas and them likely joining their Princess Alliance."
Tigra leaned forward. "Can you repeat that?"
This was the first time she's heard that the Alliance between the other kingdoms was reforming. If the Princesses come together to fight the Horde, then the fighting will get much bloodier and more devastating.
"Princess Mermista is likely to join the Princess Alliance that is being reformed." Scorpia reported. "You know, it's been said that you've fought She-Ra. Could you actually take her down in a fight?"
Everyone looked at Tigra for an answer, yet she tilted her head to the side and her eyebrows furrowed.
She ran the numbers in her head from the last time she fought her and thought about all of her skills. While she likes Haste, most of her magic would be going to Flame Armor. It won't matter if she focuses on attacking if she can't get hit more than once.
"As of right now…37:2 odds against me winning."
She-Ra just dealt too much damage and had too much health.
"R-Really?" Catra's voice raised as her eyes widened. "But if that's true…how come I can easily fight against her?"
"For one reason or another, She-Ra doesn't seem to want to actually hurt us."
Tigra didn't want to say Adora's name in the case that they didn't know. However, she looked Catra in the eye and hoped that she understood what she was trying to say.
"However, I don't give her that choice. She-Ra is an enemy of mine and I move to incapacitate. With my speed, She-Ra seems to instinctively act as if I am an enemy. While you may or may not have been on the end of her hits, she hits hard. Enough that, without that spell I just showed, I'm not confident I can survive a third hit from her, let alone getting hit with that sword."
"Is she really that dangerous?" Catra muttered.
"Cat, you saw the result of me getting hit by her a few months ago. I was out of commission for about 9 hours and forced to rest for nearly half a month. I met She-Ra again during the botch outpost near Plumeria. I was a bit stronger, but I still would have been done in by a second hit."
Tigra took a breath.
"Whether she knows it or not, I feel like something bad will happen if both of us have the intent of taking the other down."
"Hey, what kind of talk is that?" Lonnie snarked. "You use your speed to avoid that situation if it happens. We need you more than we need that Princess gone."
"Yeah!" Kyle supported her. "Until that happens, just keep getting stronger and faster until you aren't at risk."
Tigra sighed before speaking.
"I have no plans on fighting She-Ra to the death. If I did, it would be a lose-lose. Considering it would either be my death or Shadow Weaver actually trying to kill me."
"Would she?" Scorpia asked. "Would Shadow Weaver actually kill you for taking out one of the Horde's enemies?"
"Shadow Weaver cares about herself first, the traitor Adora second, and the Horde third. For one reason or another, Shadow Weaver wants She-Ra. Whether it would be for her magic or otherwise, she would kill me. I may escape, fight back, or something else, but Weaver would not stop until one of us would be dead."
The room fell into silence before Catra spoke up.
"You…genuinely believe that?" Her voice had sounded quiet, as if she didn't want to disrupt the silence.
"I do." Tigra nodded. "She would do anything and everything to see me burned and forgotten."
Tigra turned and looked at a clock.
"Well, reinforcements for the fortification will arrive in two days. I assume you all know where you can sleep?" Tigra looked around the room, indicating to them that there are places around her office that one could sleep.
"Yeah, we'll see you in the morning." Kyle told with his face strangely pale.
Tigra only tilted her head and watched as the trio of Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle walked off to their own room.
"Night guys!" Scorpia declared, walking into her own room, banging against the doorframe on the way in before closing the door.
Tigra shook her head before walking over to her own room and looked over her shoulder.
"Are you joining or want your own room?"
Catra seemed to choose that moment to release a yawn and walked towards her.
"Joining. Haven't had a good night's rest over the past week."
Tigra chuckled lightly before holding the door and closing it behind Catra.