world.ptah.temp.lore

{
  "$type": "world.ptah.temp.lore",
  "title": "Chapter 5 — The War Cry",
  "content": "Time resumed and the air returned to normal along with the rest of the town, which had begun to scream and run in horror at the sudden appearance of a destroyed Haint and a dead child's body in the middle of Main Street. The metallic monstrosity split into two had instantaneously signaled to its other compatriots in the town and there was a swarm coming down upon Sister and the fully materialized Midnite, and everyone else knew better and to get out of dodge.\n\nBut Midnite's offer had fallen upon deaf ears. Sister had already assessed that it's either her or them, and today was not going to be her day. Because who would avenge her Mister? No one in this Wasteland but her.\n\n\"And me,\" Midnite said.\n\nBut Sister's Razers were already out and she was focused on how many of them she could take down before her last foot fell. And then, the Haints descended.\n\nSister let out a war cry that shook the last bits of Heavenly stupor from Midnite as she simply dodged the Haints while keeping an eye out for Sister, not that it mattered.\n\nNot even the abstract minions of The Sheriff and his hellscape could stand against a mother's rage, especially one with nothing to anchor her to this plane of existence and its twisted web of morality any longer.\n\nThe ends of Sister's guns lit up like Morse Code, signaling death upon each Haint a bullet hit. Her ferocious aim never missed, never wavered, and hit with an even deadlier accuracy, driven behind the wind of her anger and rage that escaped her lungs with each breath.\n\nShe dodged the Haints' bullets while her mind's eye was clouded picturing Mister's last wave of his canteen to signal to her he was thirsty. He had just been thirsty. He was not a threat. It wasn't even sundown yet. Not that it mattered to these contraptions. This would be her last sunset if it wasn't theirs.\n\n\"Do you even see the sun, you soulless automatons? Do you know what the warmth of the sun brings to our skin, how it powers us?,\" Sister asked aloud as she moved down Main Street meticulously, shutters closing and doors slamming in unison, the townspeople trying to dodge the bullets that missed Sister. They didn't want to die like her little one. There had been too much death today. The townspeople had to wish her well as they minded their business. Out here, if it's not your monkey, it ain't your circus. Best keeping it that way.\n\n\"Well, my child was my sun. And I'll never feel that warmth again.\" Sparks flew as Sister dispatched the Haints one by one.\n\nA bullet struck her duster and a speck of blood peeked out through the gashed leather. She didn't care. All she felt was the white-hot heat of her reality unraveling. She drew the metallic agents closer into her range so that she could let that heat melt these miserable machines into the ash heaps of limbo.\n\n\"Watch out!,\" Midnite yelled, watching the fight like she used to from her monitor in Heaven. She shadow-boxed while simultaneously batting away bullets with ease from the few Haints that were trying to box Sister in.\n\n\"Now this is what I came back for! Got my blood rushing!,\" Midnite thought with a slight smile spreading across her silent lips.\n\nSister finally noticed that the wave of Haints had begun to thin, and took in the scene surrounding her. The adrenaline had finally begun to subsist slightly, unfortunately giving her grief a chance to well up past the temporary blocks of rage she'd been relying on throughout the melee. The tears welled up, and she missed a Haint in her periphery who managed to knock her two Razers out of her hand with one deft swipe of its metallic phalanges.\n\n\"You think I won't kill you with my bare hands?!,\" she screamed at the top of her lungs, the dry dusty air swirled around them both and obscuring everything but the Haint's red eyes. It was an old-fashioned sunset showdown, Sister having worked her way through the New Hades' whole battalion of Haints.\n\nSuddenly, a voice emerged from the dust cloud and the Haint's metallic voice hung on the last bits of particles that clung to Sister's cornrows and duster.\n\n\"Well, this is quite the mess you've made here, Misses?,\" the voice trailed off coldly from the Haints' bandana-covered mouth.\n\n\"Hello, Sheriff,\" Sister growled under her panting breath. She was tired but she had more in her. She intended for this to be a fight to the death. \"I'm ready to join my son.\"\n\n\"Or, you're ready to join US, you mean.\"\n\n\"You tell your boss that Sister is coming for him. I'm coming for you both. I'll raze Earth, freeze Hell and bring down the foundations of Heaven for what you did to my child. To MY SON!\"\n\nMidnite chimed in telepathically, \"To our sons. Over and over...\"\n\nSister felt the connection with Midnite and choked up at the emotions that came with her revelation, and though she couldn't see Midnite, the tears fell from both of their dust-covered faces.\n\n\"And then, I'll come join you myself,\" Sister choked out through the sobs she held back.\n\n\"I'll be waiting, mongrel. Sis--\"\n\nSister pulled out a knife and made a run at the robot, risking it all.\n\n\"Keep my name out of your mouth!,\" she yelled with the last of her summoned strength while jumping directly at the Haint's face, pulling a knife out of each of her boots mid-air and stabbing both of its eyes. Its cracked and sparking red eyes sparked and flickered in and out, signaling the near end of its transmitting life.\n\nBefore they fully dimmed, Sister leaned into the Haint's face near its eye sockets, the butts of the two knives inches from her face.\n\n\"For Mister,\" she weakly but menacingly whispered to the abomination, knowing that The Sheriff was listening -- and watching. She passed out on top of the sparking heap of metal, tired and spent from grief, injured, and willing to meet Mister, wherever he might be.\n\nAnd yet, before she faded into unconsciousness, she felt a warmth replace the rage that had subsided to a dull throb in her very soul which brought her back into consciousness. She managed to flicker her own eyes open and looked up to see Midnite walking towards her, almost seeming to float down the street.\n\n\"This is it,\" Sister thought. She was going to see her baby.\n\n\"Sister, this is only the beginning. So are you done, or are you finished?,\" Midnite pontificated inside of Sister's fractured mind.\n\nWith one last look, Sister saw the stars emerging on the horizon with the setting sun refracting into prisms in the very sky behind this Black woman with an afro, shimmering duster and pants with a crescent moon belt buckle, and the cleanest boots Sister had ever seen out here in the Wastelands. Sister finally blacked out, sure that if she wasn't dead, she had to be very soon with what she had just witnessed.",
  "createdAt": "2026-03-22T00:00:00Z",
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  "canonicalStatus": "official",
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  "timelinePosition": "Day 1, sundown, New Hades — Main Street battle",
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did:plc:l45z35sxxjuobp5q65a5vu22 | at://did:plc:l45z35sxxjuobp5q65a5vu22/world.ptah.temp.lore/3mhnetk7eum24