The mouse had done it. There was no turning back. Her defiance would send shock-waves throughout her entire species and the Hexarchy that oppressed them so callously. Rebellion burned in the hearts of countless of her kind, but fear hung oppressively over the slave race, heavier that the collars and cuffs they wore to show subservience. The kind of fear that pins you to the ground like a delicate butterfly to a cold display case. One can only see so many summary executions of family and feel their own body fail in the toxic caves bit by bit before the soul too begins to corrode. But not for all of them. Every now and then is forged a soul so resolute that every cut and slice only serves to sharpen it.

Xeon-12 was young but not without scars. Yet her spirit was like a light burning in the choking depths of the mines. Quick to volunteer and eager to learn, the young slave was irrepressible in her zest for life. When her clothes got torn, she finished her shift and marched home naked in rags yet proud. She stitched them up from other fabrics she found pretty, never settling for anything uniform. When her footpaw showed the telltale burns of the incurable crystalrot, she wrapped the tourniquet herself and surgically removed it as though she were working on machinery. When her arm began to succumb, she drew up schematics for a custom replacement. Never once did she lament for loss of flesh. There was too much work to be done and too much to learn for that.

In retrospect, if any mouse would have sparked the long chilled fires of rebellion, it would have been the little white mouse who embraced the nickname "lab rat." One whose beauty stood out all the more for how marred her body was. War raged all around Xeon. The Hexarchy had launched a full scale invasion of this pristine sky-jungle. The flagship she stood upon breathless and enraged rumbled with the energy of arcane engineering and the relentless firing of heavy weapons. An entire civilization was being ground to heel beneath the boots that had been on her neck her whole life. She made her choice there and then with paws gripping the haft of the axe as big as she was with determination. Certain death be damned. None would suffer as her kin had while lungs held breath and steel spanneraxe held true.

The catalyst for her, the last straw, stood before her. Captain Ironlock, the leader of the invasion, had taken to the deck to personally crush three brazen skylanders who had boarded the ship. His back was turned to the mouse while his arm mounted Gatling churned out lethal shards of metal at the intruders and his grafted metal claw swung in clumsy but deadly arcs. There was no room for thought. No more time for introspection. The paralysis the oppressors counted on to keep the slaves in check burned away as Xeon sprinted into the fray. The mouse leapt up high and with a scream her heart was pounding too hard for her to hear, buried the cog notched head of her spanneraxe in the fleet commander's back. The captain howled in agony and ceased his assault on the three heroes. With a spray of blood and machine oil, the titanic human slave master fell to his knees.

Gritting his steel-capped teeth, the captain growled, "y-you traitorous whore! You flea-bitten beast! I'll rip you limb from limb!" His Gatling mount hung limply by his side streaming oil and spilling ammo. Down but far from out, the invader put his weight on one of his knees and grabbed Xeon's mechanical arm that was still holding her weapon-tool. His claw closed around the prosthetic and with a bestial grunt, the hulking captain hurled Xeon across the deck. Landing beside the shocked skylanders like a discarded toy, the mouse struggled to get up. The wind was knocked out of her and her arm, a marvel of engineering considering it was made from scrap, hung limp and bent at the wrong angles.

"How did you think this little tantrum would end, hmm?" Ironlock stood with cold fury, letting Xeon's weapon fall from his gashed back like it was little more than an insect sting. He took slow, ponderous steps with teeth gritted so tightly it looked like the veins in his neck would burst. "You think one little girl is going to be the beacon to the rest of your worthless kind? You'll die the same as the dozens of your plague-infested race I've killed with my own-" The monster's tirade was interrupted by something even more chaotic and bellicose. The ship began shaking and listing side to side. "W-what? What did you-"

The three skylanders helped the mouse to her paws, confused but recognizing an ally. Grinning, the mouse made eye contact with the captain and spat out a spray of blood in defiance. "One little girl striking her Master? Hell no. That's not going to be enough to light a beacon to overthrow you vicious bastards. A lowly slave engineer rigging the heaviest particle cannon ever forged to overloading and taking down the mighty flagship of the Hexarchy's armada? That ought to do it." Ironlock's jaw dropped as the situation became clear. Bellowing incoherently, the captain tore a path across the deck. Xeon knew this was probably it, but what a blaze of glory to go out on.

The flying warship shook with increasing violence as rivets snapped and metal melted from the heat building up. The mouse closed her eyes and prepared for the end but was shaken out of her reverie by the skylander invader who had wrapped her arm around his shoulder to help him stand. He was a human adolescent in a black coat. Despite the tropical climate he had pale skin. A necklace with the numeral "X" hung from a chain across his bare chest. His eyes were chilling as they gazed upon the mouse girl. Black sclera and gold pupils appraised her before he said something Xeon had said to herself and her comrades countless times in her life. "Get up and keep fighting. It's not over yet."

As the first sparks of a chain reaction building into a massive conflagration shot out, the four youth that had defied an empire leapt over the side of an airship and into the unknown beneath the clouds. If they survived, this was going to hurt and the mouse would have a lot to fix. But the weird human with the freaky eyes was right. This was far from over.
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This image of Xeon fixing up her arm after a long fall was done on a whim by a very talented artist( federick) who has been great for a while but only recently recognized that himself. It was great to commission him and I will absolutely do it again. This piece shows that while his style is influenced by his friend  rickgriffin, it very much has it's own flavor. Xeon is a steampunk engineer for my setting Lost Paradigm. She fights for freedom and new frontiers with her cybernetic body, hurtling towards the terrible truth behind her world. Fed did a great job showing how piecemeal and improvised her prosthetics and attire are. It also captures her tenacity and cleverness quite well. Waking beaten and bruised is no excuse to stop raging for justice and thirsting for new experiences to enrich life.

Art ©️ federick
Character ©️ kitkabbit