🚀 go-pugleaf

     [The cover image is of Black Opal and the Morning Stars looking 
      into the camera in shock as the page they are on is sliced in
      two.  Emerging between the halves as they fall to the sides is
      Weapons Master of the Freedom Alliance!]

____________________________________________________________________________
 .|, COHERENT COMICS PRESENTS             An ASH Universe Story
--+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 '|`   SHADOW GIRLS      #17 - Master (Forging The Sword Part 5)
			 copyright 2025 by Dave Van Domelen
____________________________________________________________________________


	  		    The Morning Stars

     Tetra-Red		 Xueli "Julie" Li - The Leader
     Hexa-Blue		 Tamica "Tammy" Sullivan - The Brains
     Octa-Green		 Dhriti "Tee" Singh - The Fighter
     Dodeca-Yellow	 Jessica "Jess" Davies - The Scout  
     Icosa-Pink		 Olivia "Liv" Stuart - The Heart
     Black Opal II    	 Madelyn "Maddie" Chin - The Mentor

============================================================================

[August 12, 2027 - Plato's Cave, under Manhattan Autonomous Sector]

     "Inky is safely in Combine hands now," Tetra-Red said as she led three
of the other girls into the Cave.  The secret tunnels didn't actually extend
all the way to New Jersey Sector, but they at least made it into the Lincoln
Tunnel.  Weehawken had its own Marshal now, who could handle the catboy if he
stopped being suicidally depressed.  "So...what the actual fuck happened back
there?" she looked pointedly at Icosa-Pink, who hadn't come along on the
delivery.  
     "I...I don't know," she replied, with uncharacteristic terseness.  "It
just felt...right?"
     Maddie looked up from the computer screens that lit her face.  "Almost
definitely god stuff," she sighed.  "Too bad we have no idea which god."
     "It seems uncharacteristic of Ishtar, even considering her significant
syncretic variations," Hexa-Blue frowned.  "Of course, we have long suspected
that Ishtar was a diversion, to keep us from delving too deeply into the
secrets of the gems."
     "Not that we've gotten far with that anyway," Octa-Green sighed.
     Maddie shrugged.  "Whoever it was empowering the gems, she's obscure.
Still fairly sure it's a female-aspected god, although that's more of a
feeling than something I have proof for.  I've reached out to some para-
archaeologists through a friend, and while they were pretty sure the pectoral
was quite old...before I fused with it...it doesn't have any distinctive
artistic elements that would nail it down beyond probably part of the
'classical' part of the world.  Old white guy speech for the places Alexander
the Great conquered, give or take a few hundred kilometers.  So Ishtar is
plausible, just based on the scientific side of things."
     "Being really old doesn't mean it wasn't a Godmarket purchase, sometimes
the gods just guided people to finding ancient artifacts, especially before
the mid-90s," Dodeca-Yellow added.  "Damn gods loved to let people think
stuff happened by chance when it was really part of their little games."
     "Well, whatever god is behind this, Pink doesn't have an all-purpose
purification power...Inky is still a catboy.  It just seemed to undo whatever
new thing Bathory is adding to her people," Tetra-Red pointed out.  "We might
not...be able to fix my brother."

	       *	      *		     *		    *

[August 13, 2027 - Upper West Side, Manhattan Autonomous Zone]

     Despite ongoing efforts and deconstruction and renovation, Manhattan
still had a lot of functionally abandoned buildings in what used to be the
high rent parts of the island.  Bathory's territory was particularly thick
with them, since she didn't encourage developers.  Unfortunately, she also
didn't encourage cleaning crews, so her lair in the Ansonia was getting kinda
rank, and minions who she trusted tended to find their own squats in the
decaying splendor of TwenCen apartment buildings.
     Ligerjack and his crew were lounging in a seventh floor apartment
looking out on Central Park, having thoroughly trashed the ninth floor
apartment that they'd used last week.
     "Anyone got word on what happened to Inky?" Ligerjack asked the
assembled hybrids.  Three catboys, a snake girl with strong "no touchy"
energy, and a tigerman who used to be one of Bathory's top enforcers until he
lost a sparring match to Ligerjack.  The tiger insisted on being called
Laohu, but everyone knew his real name was Tony...most people weren't stupid
enough to rib him about that, though.
     Snark, a white-furred catboy with black spots and a floppy ear spoke up.
"I been sneaking around, no one knows how they took him down, but he's in
Combine hands now."  Snark couldn't exactly turn invisible, but he was very
hard to find when he didn't want to be found.
     "Well, they ain't got jurisdiction," Tina Gutierrez shrugged, carefully
enunciating each word to avoid hissing.  She really didn't like playing into
that snake stereotype.  "Inky didn't do anything outside'a Manhattan, the
fash out there might try to put him in school but as soon as he gets better
he'll come back home."
     "Hm.  Well, our Lady isn't worried about him.  Either he'll come back,
or he won't," Ligerjack frowned slightly.  He couldn't think ill of Bathory,
quite literally, but the enthusiasm with which she approached each of her new
Special Projects and the lack of interest she showed in her previous ones
nagged at him.  After all, he was old business too, would she care if those
girls punted him to Jersey?  He supposed he'd have to make sure he was the
one doing the punting.  "Okay, I think we need to stop waiting around for
orders and take some initiative here, especially since I bet the Morning
Stars will be harder to find out in the open once school starts up."
     "Oh, you think they're gonna put the hero gig on hold for that?" Scottie
asked.  His fur was more of a butterscotch color, hence his nickname.
"You're sure they're high schoolers?"
     Stripes snorted.  He was on the crew in part because he'd beaten the
other five catboys who wanted to use the name, demonstrating his skills and
motivation.  "You don't go after Al Mirage that hard if it isn't personal,
and he only made it personal with high school girls."
     "Point is, while they might be easy to find at school, there's no way we
can go after any of the schools without Umbrae bringing down a hammer on us,"
Ligerjack pointed out.  "He might not want to piss off the Lady, but some
places are out of bounds and WE'D piss off the Lady.  So let's get out there
and start keeping an eye on their usual haunts, see if we can catch them
somewhere they can't just run away from like they did the Ansonia...."

	       *	      *		     *		    *

[August 14, 2027 - Plato's Cave, under the Manhattan Autonomous Sector]

     The heat of August never reached down as far as the Cave, although
without the fans blowing the air would get stale after a while.  Once, just
the subway trains running under the island were enough to keep the air
circulating, but there weren't enough people anymore to make it worthwhile to
run most of the lines.
     "It sucks that Bathory's people don't have to go to school, they'll
pretty much have all day to do what they want once classes start up,"
Octa-Green complained.  
     "Maybe we can convince Bathory to only send out her new monsters on
Saturday mornings?" Tetra-Red suggested.
     "Oooh, like a cartoon, yah?" Icosa-Pink perked up.  "I've really been
getting into these old magical girl anime shows I found in an online archive,
they've been giving me all kinds of new ideas for our costumes and..."
     "NO," chorused the other girls.
     "I mean, we could stand a little more detailing, but frilly poofy sailor
suits?  No thanks," Octa-Green looked herself up and down.  Their uniforms
were still basically armored swimsuits with boots, gloves, and masks, all the
details obscured by shadow while they were powered up.  Pink had been
experimenting with flaring her shadows out as a skirt, but it was hard to
maintain.  
     Maddie smirked at the old argument.  "I've been making uniforms for the
Opals...and no, I didn't suggest the name, they just starting running through
old local superhero names until they found one that the legal department
approved of...so at least I've improved my sewing skills enough to give you
something more visually interesting once you agree...hold it, we have an
alarm." 
     Hexa-Blue leaned over to peer at the computer screen.  "That is very
close.  Whoever it is should've triggered several other alarms before getting
to that point, unless it is a false alarm."
     There was a distant knocking sound from the direction of the motorcycle
exit.  
     Maddie quickly maximized the window with that camera feed, and it showed
an empty tunnel...until a man stepped into frame and waved.  He wore a dark
green leather jacket over a pale yellow t-shirt and tan pants, and had
mirrorshades clipped into one pocket.
     "Who wears a leather jacket in August?" Dodeca-Yellow snarled.
     "It appears to have the hang of an armored jacket, like the winter
uniforms Black Opal has prepared for us," Hexa-Blue added.  Given the
Ombudsman's ice powers, Maddie had thought it prudent to be prepared for cold
weather action before winter actually arrived.
     "Hullo the house!" the man called out.  "I'm just here to talk."
     "Got an ID on him," Maddie muttered.  "Chuck Morse Junior, aka Weapons
Master.  He's been spotted around town lately, reportedly on some sort of
scouting mission for his boss, Walters."
     "You suppose he's just been wandering around the tunnels occasionally
knocking on doors on a fishing expedition?" Tetra-Red asked, hopefully.
     Yellow shook her head.  "We can't completely hide the fact someone's
been going in and out of that door, our main security is that no one can get
close enough to notice.  That guy has definitely noticed at least some of the
tells."  
     "Purportedly a highly trained normal with access to magical and
supertech weaponry," Hexa-Blue scrolled through pages on her graycell.
"Known mostly for swordplay, but no doubt quite capable in the use of weapons
that could be concealed on his person.  Or even in bare-hand combat.
Considered to be fairly mercenary, as one might expect from anyone working
for Sam Walters, but he doesn't really have a record prior to taking up his
father's mantle."  Despite the best efforts of the Walters media machine,
word did get around about the darker side of the Freedom Alliance, including
how one was a former paraganger and another had actually kidnapped a member
of ASH but had been "cured" of the mental illness that had driven him.  To
the extent people in Manhattan thought about the team, it was as a flag-
waving propaganda effort by a rich guy who wanted to split up the Combine.
     "Worst case, we're already boned, and Walters knows about the Cave.  You
all know the backup location, but hopefully we'll have time to move most of
our stuff after Junior here gets his talk with us," Maddie sighed.  "I'm
going to buzz him in."  Then she blanked all the monitors save those showing
cameras along the path from the motorcycle exit to the control room. 
     "Too bad this place isn't big enough to have a separate room for meeting
strangers," Octa-Green mused.  "Not that I expect OG Black Opal had many
visitors."
     Morse stayed confidently in the middle of the views now, holding his
hands out to show he didn't have any obvious weapons, and once doing a little
twirl to show he didn't have swords strapped to his back under the jacket.
     "First off, to set you at ease as much as is likely to happen," Morse
said as he got within earshot.  "I'm in town on mostly unrelated business,
but I'm not here right now on Freedom Alliance business or any of Walters's
business in particular.  I may have had a little chat with local law
enforcement about you all, but I'm not here on their business either."
     He entered the room and paused as all eyes fixed upon him.  Maddie had
her impassive black helmet on, and the girls were all shadow-wreathed.  He
nodded to Black Opal, "My father knew the original men who wore that,
although one of them had stopped wearing it long before my dad was born."
     "Minuteman survived into the Second Heroic Age?" Hexa-Blue asked, her
curiosity piqued. 
     "Yeah, but more than that ain't my story to tell."
     "Why ARE you here?" Black Opal asked.
     "Mostly to invite you to talk someplace you don't mind being found.  I
have ways to keep my boss from knowing where I am, but I can't do it for too
long before it starts looking suspicious.  And I bet you don't want anyone
else knowing about this place.  Dad told me about it, he visited a few times
in the late 80s."
     "Bullshit," Dodeca-Yellow spat.  "You've been here before in person."
     "There's something about him that feels...off," Icosa-Pink added.
"Might be that not-being-seen thing he mentioned, but it feels deeper than
that."
     Black Opal cocked her head, as if scrutinizing the man more closely.  "I
tend to agree.  You're not who you say you are."
     "You know, you could've kept that to yourself and let me keep thinking I
had you buying it," Morse chuckled.  "You definitely need to learn more
tradecraft if you're going to survive in this town, kids.  And that's what we
need to talk about in more depth...convince me you have what it takes, or can
learn it fast, because right now you're a bright shiny object dropped in the
middle of a street fight.  Someone is using you as a weapon, almost
definitely aimed at Bathory, and they probably expect mutual annihilation.
Is that what you want?"

	       *	      *		     *		    *

[August 14, 2027 - Tribeca, Manhattan Autonomous Sector]

     While parts of the subway had been revived as part of the overall
renovation of the Autonomous Sector, most of the old stations were like this
one...lit dimly, blocked off from outside access, and with signs on the
barriers promising "Renovations Coming Soon!" with a guide to the closest
operational station.  Like about half the old stations, the line itself was
completely shut down and would need a lot of work to be safe again.  The
remaining closed stations were merely skipped, no trains stopping there yet.
     Seven figures lurked in the many shadows of the platform.
     "It's safe for my boss to know I'm here," Weapons Master subvocalized
through his borrowed choker-comm.  "I've been checking out various abandoned
tunnels at random for a few days.  In theory, I'm trying to find if there's
anything juicy Umbrae is hiding under the surface."
     "Is he?" Black Opal asked through the secure communicator.  To anyone
else in the station...and they were pretty sure no one else was there...it
sounded like faint humming or mumbling.  It was a sign that someone was
there, but that's about it.
     Weapons Master shrugged.  "I found signs of some old...call them
archeology digs, I guess.  Some neater than others, probably some of the
paragangs were digging around before Umbrae came around, too.  A lot of
people looking for leftover Odinic relics, but I doubt I found anything you
girls haven't seen down here."
     "Let's get down to business, yah?" Icosa-Pink interrupted, more on edge
than was normal for her.  "You're supposed to be a normal guy, but I'm
getting some really weird feelings from you.  Like, you're not even a little
bit like Bathory's monster guys, or like the other Morning Stars, but
focusing on you just sort of makes my teeth itch and I don't like it at ALL." 
     Black Opal nodded, the faint emergency lighting glinting off her
helmet.  "There's something about you, it's different right now than when you
were at our base...I'm guessing some if it was whatever trick you were using
the hide from surveillance, but now that you shut that down, whatever's left
is mostly you."
     He snorted.  "Again, you're probably better off in the long run not
letting too many people know you have some sort of Detect Magic or aura
reading abilities, but yeah...I'm not exactly stock human anymore.  And as
you seemed close to blurting out earlier, I'm not Chuck Morse Junior.  The
'Junior' is a lie, I'm the original."
     "How is that possible?" Hexa-Blue asked.  "If you were paranormal, you
would have vanished in 1998.  If you're normal, you would be a rather old man
by now."
     He smiled.  "Ancient Chinese secret."
     "And...?" Black Opal prompted.
     Weapons Master sighed.  "Kids today, no one knows the classics.
Whatever.  How I managed to roll back the years isn't relevant to your
situation, and your situation is very tenuous.  Especially since we seem to
have company."
     Everyone got very quiet and listened.  Down the tunnel to the North they
could just barely hear soft footsteps, more like the padding of animal paws
than shod feet.
     "This seems like none of my business, so I'll back off for now," Weapons
Master said.  "I need some first hand idea of what you can do in a fight
anyway, and I wasn't looking forwards to the aches and pains that picking one
with you would give me," he added as he headed down the tunnel to the South
and ducked out of sight.
     "Great," Octa-Green sighed.  "Give advice and leave, such a grandpa
move." 
     "I'm still on the channel," Weapons Master pointed out from his hiding
place. 
     "You've been spending the last month picking on kittens and losers,
girls," echoed down the tunnel.  "You ran away last time we fought, you owe
me some satisfaction!" Ligerjack added as he came into the light, flanked by
four other figures, one of whom was pretty big if not in the same league as
Killgamesh or Crusher Rick.
     "Run or fight?" Dodeca-Yellow asked over the comms.
     "Fight," Tetra-Red replied.  "This could be our best shot at Ch...at
Ligerjack.  Plus, he sounds confident we can't run, so there's probably a
trap waiting behind us."
     "So be careful back there, grandpa," Octa-Green added.  Then, out loud,
"My dance card has space, LJ!"
     "Maybe later, kid," Ligerjack sneered.  "First we take out the pink one,
so she can't do to us what she did to Inky!"
     "Uh oh," Icosa-Pink shrank back.

============================================================================

Author's Notes:

     Laohu is one of the ways to say Tiger in Chinese, so Tony isn't exactly
being imaginative.  Snark is a double reference.  The Hunting of the Snark is
the main one, and the in-story reason he picked the name...he's hard to hunt.
A secondary out-of-story reason is that I call the stray cats who hang out in
my yard Serially Numbered Random Cats, SNRCs or Snarks.  Currently up to
Snark-15, and Snark himself is visually based on Snark-7.  A few of the
visitors are technically indoor cats who get outdoors anyway, like Scottie
and Stripes.  So that's the other two catboys in Ligerjack's crew.  No gag
behind Tina, I figured at least one of them would just go by her regular
name.

     "Ancient Chinese Secret" was the tagline of a detergent ad campaign in
the 1970s.  The actual secret to the clean laundry was the detergent brand,
and the ads were...call it casually "of their time" racist.  I figure Chuck
Morse, who was in his 20s in that decade, would still have some unexamined
cultural baggage along those lines.  Unknown what his girlfriend would think
about it, but she's probably got some unexamined cultural baggage from the
Three Kingdoms era.  Of course, Chuck's renewed youth is literally an ancient
Chinese secret (as related in "Lifetrap" on the website under Miscellany).

============================================================================

     For all the back issues, plus additional background information, art,
and more, go to http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH !

     http://ash.wikidot.com/ is the official ASH Wiki, focusing on the Fourth
Heroic Age, but containing some information about other Ages.

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