Cleaning the Clocks (Clockwork: Invasion)

The twins would walk alongside Luna through the thick and dense forest, Grappa busy enjoying their stroll through the woods while Jellisha would be reading over that set of orders have landed them in today. It had been a fairly quiet and uneventful day when they woke up. Seri dragging them out of bed like always, taking a shower, getting dressed, drills, etc. Imagine their surprise when a day of lounging about and reading the latest comic issue was interrupted by none other than Luna and their new orders for the day. While Grappa had very little interest in reading the written piece of paper, Jellisha more than accommodated her request by just doing it behind their backs. Luna spoke up about not being in the best of moods for the event of going to a mission like this, to which Jellisha groaned. "Tell me about it. We had a whole day planned of rest and fun and then we get stuck on this." She pouted, lifting a crimson eye up from the cover of paper in her hands. Her sister, on the other hand, would looked almost stunned that the two of them would be bonding over something so negative. "Well, at least it's nice to stroll through the woods like this. It's like a mini hiking trip!~" Always the more childish and maybe more innocent of the two.

Though at the mention of a trip to a resort, the grisl perked up visibly.

"A resort? What's that?" Jellisha asked curiously, wondering what such a place was.
"Is it like a place where you go to have fun?"

The two bombarded Luna with question after question. While they had rised through the ranks despite their age, their minds were more than capable of working with the engineering department. However, they weren't technically even a year old at this point. Just last week, somebody had to explain what that shiny thing used to open cans was. A can opener. How very mysterious! They questionings continued to fire off in rapid succession up til the three of them stumbled across a clearing of sorts. Devoid of trees, a small outcropping nearby would rest a strange stone structure, one the twins hadn't seen before. "Hey Luna, what's that?" Grappa asked, eyeing the older woman in the hopes she knew what it was. Jellisha did the same, although her expression was a bit more "Mythal-lite" in nature. No time for games, all business. Runes lit up the sides and the girls hurried over to inspect them while Luna gently stepped through the portal.

"Did she just really step on through without warning us?!" "Well, I guess it's safe if she did it..." "Luna could have stepped into a hole and is falling into a pit of spikes! We should go home now. It'll be easier."

Grappa frowned at her sister's objections, taking her hand and holding it tight in hers. "Wait, what are you-" "It's okay if you're scared, Jellisha~ I'll do it for both of us." She began walking to the portal while the other Exceed would be tugging to free her hand. "Wait, no! Stop! It's dangerous! Grappa! GRAPPAAAAA!"

The two sisters stepped through on the other side, with Jellisha still defiant all the way through. Thankfully Grappa would keep her close by while forcing her off of the platform and into the foreign area around her. It was dark and mysterious. How spooky~ "Oh, there she is! Luna!" Grappa called out, dragging Jellisha behind her while the latter would resign to her fate and walk along with her twin sister. As they neared, she had been talking to a child much like themselves. Or at least, that's what it looked like. She was floating in front of her and Jellisha had her doubts about wther or not this girl was even real. "Hello!~" Grappa greeted the girl alongside Luna and listened to the conversation at hand. "Wait, we're at the Garden of Eden? THE Eden?" Jellisha asked surprised. Grappa shot her a blank look while Jellisha would groan. "I'll explain it after. Just...read more than a book a week." The gardens were under attack by...mechanical werewolves? What a strange kind of attack somebody would launch, especially in such a mythical place. The group listened as she gave a location on where to find the beasts. Grappa got super hype thanks to Luna's alreayd infectous spirit. "Yeah, don't worry! The Rune knights will save the gardens. It's our duty to- Luna?" She had already taken off in a dead sprint while Jellisha watched on. "Damn, she's pretty quick." The two 's forms exploded in a plume of smoke, taking on their Exceed shapes and then proceeded to rocket into the sky, chasing after the fox. "Luna! Wait for us!" Grappa and Jelisha would fly above her, diving closer and closer until the two young Exceed would be close enough to actually land on her head. Thanks to their size, they didn't weigh that much and wouldn't affect Luna's speed in the slightest. Based on the speed that they were going, the run wouldn't be too long in the site where the mechanical monsters would be hanging around at.

"Wow! You're like super fast, Luna! Vroooooom!~"
"According to the calculations made inside of my head, we should be getting close to that place where the enemies are. Maybe in a minute if you really kick it into high gear."

The twins enjoyed their ride, with Grappa hanging on by one of Luna's tails while Jellisha chose to remained seated on top of her head, the girl's vanilla white hair clashing against the sea of black that was their partner's.

All things considered, this wasn't exactly the days that the girls had been planning out in their mind. The ride on top of their foxy comrade certainly did make for quite the story though! The two siblings hung on for dear life while Luna would be racing in the direction that the one woman spoke of before. As they continued on, the twins noses would pick up the scent of smoke a short distance away from their position. Grappa wore a concerned look on her face, Jellisha huffed to herself. Would the people be in stable condition despite the rather unfortunate description that was given to them? Luna would finally speak while leading the girls towards the scene of the crime. Her words were understandable, given that Serilda and Mythal likely would have gone berserk had anything happened to their girls at this point. Grappa and her sister knew the reason why Luna had told, no, ordered them to stay safe and to focus on getting as many people out as she could. But unlike her sister, Jelisha wouldn't be so understanding of why exactly they were delegated to being the ones who didn't get to see all the action.

"Are you kidding me?!" Jellisha exclaimed, crossing her arms while furious about not being able to kick some serious monster butt. "We can handle ourselves just fine! Why does everybody keep putting us on the sidelines! We should be at the front!" "Um, Jel-" Grappa attempted to raise a point but was quickly shot down as her sibling continued to have her little tantrum. "I can pick up and carry people." "Jellisha." "Just think of how many people we can carry like that! Together we could-" Grappa now reached up to gently push her sister's head. "WHAT?!" she snapped, causing Grappa and blink.

"I...think that's the reason why Luna wanted us to rescue people in the first place."
"Huh?"
"Because we can get to people sooner."

Jellisha would continue to pout as the wheels inside of her furry little head would be moving around. After a few seconds or so, she shook her head and grumbled some rather choicy words. Grappa, in the mean time, would nod at Luna. "But we can do that easy! Go and help people instead of fight!" Jellisha was obviously still sour about it, but the exceed would likely come 'round after a bit of much needed pouting time. She was a grumpy cat like that. But then came the proposal that now Grappa would raise an arm at. "L-Leave you here?!" she said, now turning to face the fox woman. "But we can't....Y-You shouldn't...Why would you want us to just desert you?" The little Exceed demanded an answer, but would get none in return. The entrance to the small town was nearing closer and closer. as Jellisha would taking Grappa and help her get ready to push off. She furrowed her brows and would reluctantly go with the plan so far. She hoped the need to abandon a comrade would not be the one outcome of this event. "I won't leave you behind, Luna!" Always defiant when her team needs her to save herself, that Grappa. Some may call it brave, but they were still just children in a position where death and grief were all too common.

The twins pushed off the moment when the handler skidded into the fray, summoning her whip while beginning her assault on the group of mechanized monsters storming the place. "Come on!" Jellisha said, breaking Grappa out of her trance while the girls would race around to get a better view of the village that they found themselves sucked into. It was a fairly small area, with houses and other larger places of interest acting as shelters for the citizens whose homes were being attacked. They started small first, quickly diving down inside of a building whose roof was exposed to the sky. A women was inside, clutching her baby to her chest while waving down the two exceeds. "Don't worry, miss! We're here to getcha." Grappa said. She both would grab a hold onto the woman and use their Aero magic to get that extra boost of power they needed to get airborne. They couldn't hold her like this indefinitely though, as the twins were still just cats at the end of the day. Cats who were carrying a full sized person. The power of the two sisters flew the woman outside of the village, in a small clearing where the robots didn't appear to have any interest in. The perfect spot! They set the woman down gently and would make sure the baby was okay. "Oh, thank you both! But there are still people in the village that are in danger! If they're hurt, I can try my best to help. I'm not a full healer, but a nurse in training." Jellisha looked back at the village, sounds of cries and more robotic clanging noises were still filling the air. "Right. We'll be right back." They took off to the skies again while the woman shouted, "Oh, and bring back some supplies!"

Back into the fray, the girls would be speeding into the village again and making their next stop in another home. This one some robots had broken into as a small child would be hiding under her bed. Jellisha swung Grappa around, causing a burst of wind strong enough to push the robots against the wall while they went in and pulled the kid out to safety. "Go drop her off. I'm gunna go search for medical stuff." Jellisha ordered her sister, who flew the girl back to the one lady they had rescued early. "Millie!" The woman said, bringing the girl to her with a free hand, still clutching the baby. "Ms. Pelsman...I couldn't find my parents anywhere. Are they okay?" The woman hesitated, even looking to Grappa but would nod and pat the child's head while she trembled. "They're okay, sweetie. But we need to stay here for now. We can search for them when the town's in danger." Jellisha returned a little bit later, carrying a few bags of medical supplies she found a broken in home. There wasn't much but it was enough to get started on some if they were in need of medical attention.

"Why are people so heavy?" Grappa complained, helping Jellisha rescue another family that were out in the open. The father was blasting away robots with magic but not making much progress. If anything, they worried Luna might accidentally freeze him while dealing with every last machination. His son and wife were pushed close near him, screaming in terror while they were beginning to be surrounded. "Hey!" Jellisha called from above, swooping down low to catch the son. Grappa came soon after to collect the mother and father, grunting as she lifted both while her wings flapped a mile a minute to maintain her altitude. "The, ugh...Rune Knights are here to heeeelp..."

""
""

"This...is not...even fair..." Jellisha said, having needed to take a small break to catch her breath after carrying a rather doughy man across town and into the designated village area spacing for evacuation a little ways outside of the area. Grappa would be beside, her and pacing around in front of her with a mixture of concern and frustration evident on her young, impressionable face. Her sister would be her grumpy usual self when dealing with her ideas that conflicted with the orders that were given to her and her sister. "There's gotta be someway we can help her without just focusing on the civilians. There's still more but what if she runs into a problem or something and needs our help? How are we supposed to just continue on like nothing's happening?" The other twin would continue her pout and stop mid pace while just shaking her head and stomping around. "I don't know! But we sure as hell can't just sit here and wait for the others to rescue themselves." The two would nod in unison and take off back into the skies that hung over the besieged town. The two were just in time to get a front row seat for Luna to get smacked through a wall from the machines nearby. "Luna!" the two of them cried in unison. Their fears were put to rest upon seeing the woman get her second wind and proceed to get back up and start turning the approaching robots into a mountain of scrap metal and splinters. Now relieved, the twins swooped down to continue rescuing people close by.

"We seriously gotta ask her to make us cool armor like that." Grappa commented, finding the use of armor that could withstand such punishment all the more enticing.
Jellisha arched an eyebrow. "You know, we can actually make that ourselves, right? We're the ENGINEERING division and all."

The two settled back on the ground just in time to take the next civilian in need of a pick up. He was a younger man, thankfully less heavy which was good news for the aching of Jellisha's back, and would hang on top of the two. They were just about to take off when a stray robot had grappled the tails of the two Exceed. "Ah!" Grappa yelped, the burst of adrenaline causing her to race into the air, still holding the man with her sister and the robot weighing them down back to Earthland. Of course, it was a rather more weighty take off, and the robot was causing them to slowly sink back down to the ground. "Get off us, you oversized piece of..." Jellisha threw curse words after curse word at the metal beast and would join her sister in accelerating upwards and into the sky. The felt the entire party being lifted higher into the sky before the weight would soon disappear as the robot fell back down to the earth. The weight behind it had caused the arms holding onto the cats to slip and let gravity work its course. Grappa and her sister soared back to the meeting point with the man in tow. "Ow..." Grappa whined, her tail all poofed out from the weight that had been distributed to it. Jellisha joined her sibling in checking out her extension. They didn't seem to be broken in any way, which was a good first check. After this, they would need to get that sorted out though. For now, back into the air the two went!

The two descended on their next building, an orphanage that had been barricaded from the inside with the last remnants of the townspeople fighting off the literal horde of mechanical beings trying to break inside. Grappa searched around for a place to get in but saw little in terms of available options. "We can't get in!" she cried out, Jellisha hovering beside her while a limb of a lost being would be thrown aside in her general direction. The feeling of wind blew against her soft fur while the Exceed looked down at the semi armored man wielding a pole-arm to fend off the robots. The crimson eyed twin would swoop down to the human fending off the group while doing her best to avoid his strikes at the enemy. "Hey, mister. We've-" Woosh! "Come to-" Swsh! "Save the kids-" Fwing! "Can you open the-" Tng! "Door for us?" Using a free hand, the man pointed to the door that him and his fellow three companions were fending off the tide to keep untouched. "Kinda busy, lass. Do it yourself. But when you open that door, we can't let ya go out of it again. Thing's been breakin' apart for years now." A group approached while the old man swung his weapon to slice the four in half, their insides spilling over the ground as oil and steel met the earth. "We'll hold them off while ya get everybody to safety. Don't worry about us, we've fought harder foes than this." She nodded and puled her sister towards the door and opened it partially, enough for the two to slip inside and close behind them without worry of anybody getting inside after them.

As the door hit the frame, a group of young eyes would look at them from the corner, four adults huddled around them. Three women and a man in total. All of them were still rather frail looking, the youngest of the group looking to be somewhere in his late 60s or so. They weren't exactly spring chickens and certainly weren't going to get the children out of here in a hurry. Jellisha's brow furrowed in annoyance. Of course, it was always the most time consuming way of completing an assignment. Why couldn't it just be easy? Her sibling, on the other furry paw, would be far more outgoing than her in the current moment.The kids would be sniffling behind their matrons. "Are we gunna be okay?" "I want my Mommy!" "Please don't hurt us..." Each children's grovels were far worse off than the last. Grappa's heartstrings plucked a sad tune while doing her best to put on a brave face.

"Don't worry! We're with the Rune Knights." she said, calmly explaining as the group tensed the closer the two got during their approach. "We're here to get all of you out of here and to safety." One of the elderly woman would scoff at the idea in that sort of way old people do when somebody proposes a solution to a problem that isn't theirs. Humans were kinda weird like that. "And how are you going to do just that? There only way out is through the door, and those robots aren't going to let us just run off willy nilly." She was right. Jellisha chewed the inside of her cheek. Curse these old people and their wealth of newfangled knowledge. "Then we just gotta try and find another way to get outta here! No biggie!" Grappa looked around the interior of the building in search for any kind of way to get in. The sturdiness of the building itself was helpful for defending against what lied outside though came at the cost of being hard to penetrate. After a few seconds of hovering around in searching of anything, the emerald eyes would lock onto an old mural above. She wasn't sure of the connotation of the old building but it did look important. "Well...There's that, but I don't think that opens..." Her sibling would rolled her eyes in response.

"I have an idea."

One blast of Aero magic later, the upper portion of the stained glass mural would break away and reveal the sky above. The people below shrieked at the sudden use of magic, one of the older women now glaring at the crimson eyed cat who had just blown away part of the building. "You...You furry headed imbecile! Do you have any idea how important that is to our building! That mural you just...desecrated was put here when this town was first founded! Why I have half a mind to-" "Yell at us later, lady! Look, we gotta get all of you out of here and it's either this way or being thrown to the robots outside. If you're so butt hurt about a mural, then stay here and rebuild it while these robots are swarming over you!"

The elderly sister recalled her head at the sudden shout, with Grappa siding with her sister as the two glared silently at one another. "It's okay! Let's get you guys going!" She hovered over towards one of the kids, a rather pale faced girl with blonde pigtails and a pretty cute looking dress! "Hold on! We'll get you there lickity split!" The nicer of the two would gently take the little girl's hand and then proceed to fly out of the broken mural and into the skies above, carrying her over towards the staging area a little ways away. Jellisha grabbed a boy with shaggy, long hair which covered his eyes and followed suit with her sister. The two children were dropped off with the other woman who was helping people get situated and tending to any wounds that they might uncover here. She smiled at the two kids and would wave the twins off. "Plenty more where that came from! We'll be back with more!" Again and again, this was repeated and with each visit the number of kids trapped in that building grew less and less. They were frightened of what would be waiting for them if they let go, but were elated to touch ground and see their friends. By the fifth trip, they had made a little group by a fallen log, clutching their toys in hand and checking up on one another. It was pretty cute to see in all honesty. The trips went rather quick on account of the twins' worry for the rest of the guards present. After a total of eight children in total, Grappa and Jellisha returned to the old building just in time to see the elderly folk be lifted out, one by one. The one that had been screaming at Jellisha would be carried by Grappa, while her sister took the mantle of flying with another person for the sake of not starting another shouting match though this time up in the sky.

"I suppose you two should be pardoned for the destruction of private property. Back when I was your age-"
Jellisha rolled her eyes. "Would you like to go back into the building? I could drop you off and let the older guys get taken instead."

They were set back down in record time, Jellisha scoffing while muttering a "You're welcome." to the woman in question. Grappa, on the other hand, would appear incredibly happy to see that the nuns and kids had survived the trip. "Okay! Take care of everybody! We'll be back with more people!" Yet when the two returned to the building, the group of guards had vanished from their spot. Grappa looked worried, scouring the area for them with a keen, green eye as Jellisha joined her. "But where would they even go?" she asked aloud, biting her lip in worry. It wasn't long before they found the three gentlemen in question, huddling into a corner of the nearby wall near the southeast. At least one man was incapacitated, hung on the shoulders of a bearded man who wielded. His two handed sword in a single hand with his comrade with an oversized shield holding the horde of machines off. The two zoomed back down in a hurry, grabbing a hold of one another's paws and spinning rapidly. The air around them hardened as they drilled through the defenses and blasted away an area so that the men could breathe. "We're here! Don't worry. Let's get you guys to safety!" Both twins came together, holding the group of men in both paws. The weight load was incredibly heavy and they barely got off the ground before the approaching army would get here. "Ngh...So gods damn heavy..." Jellisha muttered, pouring every ounce of her energy into lifting the two with her paws. Grappa did the same and they slowly ascended into the skies on the way outside. It took a great deal of time, but the twins managed to get the trio back onto the ground near the group below.

They then collapsed onto the log, in need of a rest while they gasp for air, wings splayed out and dragging across the ground.