A Marvelous Breakthrough!

The creaky wooden door to the Engineering Division's Workshop opened, while the two newly appointed Major Generals would walk through. It was the briefest hint of the morning, which afforded them ample time to come and brainstorm before the place would be filled to the brim with workers aplenty. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" Jellisha asked, rubbing her crimson eyes while Grappa would have pulled her towards an empty work table with excitement almost painted onto her cheerful yet tired face. "It's 8 in the morning, and besides, we've gotta work on the thing today! Vera dropped off the part when you cam back from her exam. We gotta take a look at it before we get started on our project." The news seemed to have little effect on the peppy sister's sibling, who would just trudge along with whatever Grappa would be pulling them towards. "Wait here a minute and don't fall asleep." On that note, she took off towards the storage unit, which was located a short distance away from the workshop. The young General marched in and would rummage around in the incoming bins before she found it. A small, slightly damaged gem which had a slight azure color among its white colored insides. Her hands curled around it and walked back towards the workshop to meet with her sibling...who had now fallen asleep in the five minute window that had passed since leaving initially. A gentle yet firm shake got the grumbling sister up, and Grappa would sit down beside her, holding out the gemstone to her sister.

"I did some research and it's a pretty rare gem in that place where she found it. It's called Mananthium and has a bunch of special properties which-" Grappa reached out to hold Jellisha's dozing head off and centered on the gem in her hands. Her face was stuck pouting now, upset at her sister being sleepy at a time like this! All it took was a simple tap of the gen across her sisters head to wake her up in full. Jellisha yelped in surprise, rubbing the spot on her forehead where the stone had made its impact. "Which would work perfectly for our little test. But we just have one issue." Jellisha arched an eyebrow at her sibling while taking the Mananthium for herself to inspect. The dazzling clear azure color would shine off the reflection of the lights above. "What's that?"

"Well, we'd be working on something that's half of the power we had been hoping for, but the good news is that we could get a more pure sample in the future. For now, this is what we got."

While not the worst possibility to happen to either of them, Jellisha would nod her head in understanding. "Gotcha. Well, it's better than nothing. So off to the workshop we go."

[ WC: 480 // 2,000 ]

With the gem in hands, the twins would step out from their office and made their way towards the workshop, which was a minute or so of walking distance away from their office. They passed by a few people in the hallway and offered the usual salutes and things, confusing a few recruits and lower ranks by how nonchalant about the rules they were, and it was true to an extent. When it come to the work shop though, that's when everything would be change. The two opened the doors to the Engineering Division and were greeted by the many people at work. Some working on repairs, others near the corner cleaned weaponry for a mission or something. But as soon as the twins stepped further inside the hall, the eyes of the EC were upon them. They took their time to greet each one with as much respect and love as they had for their new positions. "We, uh, are gunna work on reviewing the designs of stuff in the other room. So no bothering us unless it's urgent, okay?" She waved them all off and walked into one of the distant private areas in the building. With the doors closed behind them with a click, Grappa would turn to her sister and smile. "Alright, let's get some drafts ready then!"

About an hour later, the two girls were surrounded by a sea of crumbled up blueprints, alongside several cans of soda, some chips and a half eaten snack cake. Jellisha would be leaning on her chair, eyes closed with a mixture of exhaustion and frustration swirling in her small silver haired head. "This is a lot harder than I thought it would be..." Grappa was still at work with a preliminary design, penciling in features here and there and promptly erasing them as soon as they had spent less than a total of five seconds on the paper. "Tell me about it. We need a chassis that can handle damage, support enough weight, and be light enough to move, all at once." a quick swig of soda. "It's like trying to find a pen full of ink in the warehouse." A beat came while the two would think things over. Jellisha thought back to the towns surrounding by Era from the winter celebrations with Beaux. There were stalls of them everywhere, ranging from all sorts of things. that five star restaurant in Magnolia with that huge metal pot for cooking with 700 people or so, the clockwork shop which made the many toys for kids of the town, even that one shop with the owner coming from Motor City. They had always wanted to go there one day and likely would. It would just take some time and maybe Seri or Mythal could help. They did have friends in high-

Wait.

"Hey." Jellisha opened an eye to her sibling, giving up on the sketch and throwing it against the wall. "What if we draw from what we know, instead of just making up parts?" she suggested, causing Grappa to shoot her a confused glance. To demonstrate her point, budged in between her and would draw in the shape of a cooking pot. "So remember that huge pot at the festival? That's the body. Big, sturdy, and can hole a ton. Then the systems..." She draw a rough sort of idea of what the internal mechanisms would look like based on memorizing what made the toys work. "So if we wanted the arms to move, it'd look something like...this." Grapa watched her, confused at first, but the idea was slowly beginning to dawn on her. "I get it now...But how are we gunna get all of that?" Jellisha smiled at her sister, flashing a plastic jewel card between her fingers, a neat little tricked picked up from Mythal. "Remember that emergency fund Mom gave us in case we need it?"

Grappa tilted her head. She did remember when it was given to them (after they almost got their souls taken by the spectre on Halloween. "Yeah. But what's that got to do with our project?"

"Well, this is an emergency." Jellisha winked. "Just follow my lead, and we'll be flying in no time."

[ WC: 1,184 // 2,000 ]

The two Exceed left the workshop and sailed on the winds above, heading towards the various shops of Era in pursuit of parts they would need for their little creation concept. The two sailed through the mid day air before coming to land just near the entrance of the city. Upon landing, they cast the cosmetic spell found in the library long ago that let them hide their shapes as Exceed, taking the form of humans that looked similar to the shapes of Serilda herself. The only things which resembled their original Exceed forms were the eye colors each twin house within their head, staring outwards at the busy Era streets nearby.

"Right. The closest place to start first is that you shop near the entrance here." Jellisha began, taking the lead while Grappa followed behind her. They stuck close in the dense crowds so either would get separated, and that Jellisha wasn't the best fan of crowded places such as this. Nothing good came from being packed anywhere like sardines, aside from being a tasty dish. Within a few short minutes of walking, they arrived at the toy shop and walked in to see a couple of parents and their kids roaming around. A twinge of regret filled Grappa's heart as her grip around her sister's hand tightened a little while the latter of the two would continue onwards to walk towards the counter. The shop owner was thankfully present, a rather old looking man with a neatly kept beard and hands that had seen their fair share of work. He greeted the two while Jellisha would flash her Rune Knights badge. "We're here on official business. Those toys at the winter event a few months ago, do you still have the design blueprints?"

The meeting was long winded and such, but the twins had managed to convince the owner into not only allowing them to use a portion of his internal working designs alongside but helping draft a make up of how the innards of this machine would function. It was a deeply appreciative gesture, him wanting to help pay back the guild responsible for keeping the peace, and it did help that the twins had a tendency to visit often in search of new toys from time to time. "That was awesome! Mr. Miller sure was nice helping us out!" Grappa said while then walking alongside Jellisha to their next destination: The Grilled Wing, the restaurant where the enormous pot would be located at for the taking. The door was pushed open as the interior of the restaurant was visible. Delicious smells wafted out from the back of the kitchen, enough which made the girls' mouth water while remembering the dishes a plenty back during the event. A waitress came over, with Jellisha doing the same as before. "Rune Knight business. I know it's weird, but we need to buy your pot."

"Push!" Jellisha groaned, straining against the bottom of the enormous pan with Grappa pulling against the other side with her paws. The two had somehow managed to drag this thing all the way back into the Rune Knight's headquarters and were on their way back to the workshop with their prize in tow. "How do, ngggh, Mom and Dad make this look so easy?" Jellisha asked while her sibling would peek over the side. "Hey Jellisha, do you ever think it's...weird we call them that if we're not humans?"

"Not really. Ever since they took us in and started treating us like their own, they've always been our parents. That's good enough for me." Jellisha answered, pushing the cauldron once more while continuing to push. "Don't say it." Grappa tilted her head at Jellisha. "Say what?" "That they don't love us. You think they'd give us all of this because they didn't love us?" The crimson eyed twin stopped to gently rustle her sister's hair, quelling those thoughts striking within her. "So don't ever think that Seri and Myth hate us. Even if we're different than them, they're our parents and they love us more than anything." She flashed a toothy smirk and would then get back to hauling the cauldron back inside. Grappa stood on top with pointing at those present. "Listen up! We're gunna need all of you to help us with this one!"

Once their prey was in place, the twins would get to work. Their paws were worked to the bone, with a cascade  of sparks flying from their welding tools as they fused the clockwork wiring inside of the cauldron. The sides of the cauldron would be cut through to fit heavy, metal tubes that had been fused by the other workers at the workshop. Metal sung as hammers found their mark across the surfaces, drills burrowed deep with screws and more digging into the depths of the framework. Slowly but sure, a figure would be born from the depths of metal and fire. Circuit systems and channels would take the power and guide it to where it needed to be, with enough durability to withstand even the harshest power surges. Jellisha stood watch as everything was coming together smoothly, hands on her hips. She guided the groups together like the perfect foreman the girl was destined to be. "Arm Team, pick your end up more for the welders. Circuit Team, let's get those systems up and running before we close the chassis."

After numerous hours and hardships, the small group would stand over the metal monolith in front of them. It was about the size of the average man, a good 6'1" or so, and rested still while the twins would approach, Mananthium in hand. "Alright, let's give this a power test. I'm not sure if this chunk can power this fully, but let's see!" Grappa would insert the chunk of gemstone into the holding chamber and close the lid. She climbed up to the top of the construct and turned the key, ignition set as the energy charged gemstone let out a soft hum, channeling its energy through the system of tubes and tunnels. After a short while, the eyes overlooking the chamber would turn on, glowing a bright yellow color while Jellisha would smile honestly.

"We actually did it!" she said, hugging her sister as she touched the ground again, spinning her around until they both faced the front of their project, the first version of their Valkyrie unit. It was rough around the edges and hardly resembled the mythical unit, but it would be a start. "So, what now?" Grappa asked, looking at Jellisha, who was now taking a picture for their social media as well as to brag to a few people in other divisions. "Now, we start again. Build more on it and see what this baby can do."

WC: 2,348 // 2,000