11/29: "Raindrops" (Non-Canon)

***Raindrops*** is a non-canonical story taking place inside *The Rage Knights: Red God* universe created, drawn and written by Khaliq Trevor X.

> "*God isn't here and that's more evident the longer we continue to hurt each other.*"
> ― Jessica Bree
>
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## Story

The story follows an adventuring Midlore West-Stein and Jessica Bree whom travel the countryside of the United States to escape their personal lives. It's been a few months since they've abandoned their friends but things are somewhat quiet as the two begin to spend longer periods of time with one another. The sun settles as the duo reach a local motel, when Midlore finishes checking in, a strange shadow lures him into the eventual darkness. Persuaded by the shadow, Midlore disappears into the night, leaving barely any trace other than his abandoned luggage. The following morning, Bree awakens after a nightmare in which a feminine-faced Diseased attacked the Rage Knights and devoured them. Unnerved, she jumps up and screams for Midlore. With no trace to be found, she grows into a panic until she overhears a muffled crying from the motel room's bathroom. There, she discovers a seventeen-year old Damon Bradley whom cries over a menacing Diseased that caused him a great and terrible anxiety. A confused Bree goes over to comfort the young man but he's barely able to speak. The television itself blares from the room with odd murmurs and white noise. As Bree continues to console the isolated teenager, the two discover they aren't alone. Lurkers have invaded the motel and as they flee, while killing off the creatures, they encounter a woman whom demands Bradley turn his life over to the afterlife, this is *Draya Freeman*. While Bree refuses, Bradley goes to the woman's company to turn his life over without conflict. A riled up Bree summons her Avent-Grade Whips and in a bout of anger, lashes out at Freeman and strikes her. This leads to a full-scaled physical conflict between the two women as Freeman displays an expertise in combat. Going so far as to utilize teleportation that sends Bree and Bradley to the Dome Base.

Upon their entrance, the two wander the Base aimlessly searching for the other Rage Knights, especially Midlore but they find little to no trace, only black shadows. *More* Diseased appear soon later and proceed to chase Bree and Bradley throughout the Dome Base with Bree focused on not only locating the absent Midlore but defeating Draya. The two reach Hangi Bell's weapon room where they try to seclude themselves from the monsters without having to fight their horde. As the creatures persist behind a barricaded door, Bradley confesses that he looked at a pretty woman for an extended period of time and that may have been why the feminine-headed diseased appeared. A confused Bree tries to question this, but Bradley feels more guilt than anything, finally saying he had a crush on Draya and her Diseased will not stop at nothing till the Rage Knights are gone. Bree tries to calm Bradley from his guilt-ridden anger but they're then attacked by a Mech-Burden sized Philogynist's Nightmare which successfully destroys the weapons room. This Diseased wounds Bree and forces Bradley to face it alone. Trying to admit a Moral Code against harming the creature, it simply petrifies Bradley thus giving Draya enough time to take a swing at the stone-imprisoned Bradley and killing him. An enraged Jessica Bree lashes out against Draya but she's brutally stricken by the Nightmare's claws. As she falls down, a spare Time Rune rolls to her hand. As Draya tries to deliver a final blow, she uses the rune to traverse backwards into time in an incarnation of the spell Try Again right before Damon Bradley was petrified. Draya and the Philogynist's Nightmare, despite their confusion, launch a second wave of attacks on the two Rage Knight friends but as they come, Bree reminds Bradley that its okay to cry and its okay to make mistakes, that just one wound should never define anyone's ultimate worth in the world. Bradley, while smiling, attacks the Diseased causing it topple down throughout the Dome Base and severely wounding them in the fall. An injured Draya tries to stand and *shoot* both Bradley and Bree while she has a Magistrate Pistol however she's stricken through the abdomen by two drumsticks –– Midlore's Drumsticks ––revealing a CPU housed underneath her clothing. Midlore resurfaces, bathed in Diseased blood, shocked to discover this was in fact a Cymechrian Clone that was projecting images. Bree relaxes and tries to thank Bradley for his help in defeating Freeman but she and Midlore then discover that this Damon Bradley was a *living projection* that was being emitted from Freeman and the source of the clone itself was not from their time.

Midlore checks the Draya Freeman droid's casing and discovers the android came from a world hundreds of years from them with the words, "raindrop" under a serial number.

## Trivia/Notes

**Disclaimer***: To whom this may concern, the characters in their entirety, while they borrow inspiration from events, ideas, themes and other sources from the original author's life, are incredibly different and fictional entities inside the Rage Knights Red God and under no circumstance are they expressing a real person's actual views, ideologies, names and likeness to cause harm or defame them. The Rage Knights Red God is a work of fiction and for solely entertainment and educational purposes. Please note, the series does not represent events that have happened, nor events to come. Nor does it condone or promote the very human evils the series is meant to advocate against.*