Creation of the Five Claws

Marianna walked over to Bea and her group. At the moment, they were being a bunch of weirdos to clear their heads. Albus was carrying Furvus piggyback style, Gladys had Albus standing on his shoulders and was carrying Bea bridal style. When Marianna finally arrived in front of them, they'd switched to a more comical position.

All of them laid their heads on the thighs of the one in front of them without touching the ground with their hands

They made a donut shape. Marianna paused a bit, but spoke in the end. "How do we get a bond with Lady Chao?"

"Why do you want a bond with the Lady? Are you looking for power?"

Furvus answered Bea, "Maybe they're looking for revenge."

Albus mumbled, "Although our Lady can never be damaged by the likes of you, it never hurts to be cautious."

"So why do you want to know?" Gladys glared at them prompting them for an answer.

"If we get a bond, can we repay her?" asked Lawrence.

"Yes" said Furvus.

"If we get a high enough bond, can we shoulder some of her burdens?" asked Marianna

"Yes" said Bea.

"If we get a bond with her, are we going to be prohibited from chasing debts?" asked Ignis.

"No. If you are in the right, we'll all join you in the chase" admitted Gladys.

"We hereby pledge our loyalty to Lady Chao and the almairusks."

Furvus' legs got tired so he fell causing a domino effect with Gladys falling first. "We should have an official name. After all these years, we still haven't established a name!"

"Ugh, you man child." Albus groaned and looked to Gladys. "It would be 7 of us, but I think we should have an element of surprise."

Suddenly, Ignis looked up after in deep thought. "Five Claws."

Gladys also showed an expression of enlightenment. "Five Claws. It's perfect. From today onwards, we are the Five Claws. We slaughter the enemies and feed the beast."

"The first order of business is getting a uniform of sorts."

"What are you thinking of Bea?"

"We can all wear our own colors, but we should have a matching accessory. Like a mask, necklace, or even earrings of some sort. We should also make tokens so that on missions, anyone can identify us after we make our group name known."

Albus clasped her hand over Bea's. "I agree. We should also carry around a voice modulator or a display screen so we don't reveal our voices. We'll seem mysterious that way!"

Gladys looked at her bewilderedly. "No matter how long I've known you, I still find it difficult to associate this childishness with your usual resting face." She stuck her tongue out and continued gushing.

"It should be obligatory to wear trenchcoats! There should be fur lining as well with Lady Chao's purple. The outside should be black while the inside is yellow as well. Ahhh, maybe we should just have three sets. Each one could be a solid color so that the missions are separated by almairusk. But that means, we'll need -"

"Alright love. Calm down. We'll wear masks with the trenchcoats. That way if it's a mission for 2 out of the three we can mix and match." Furvus patted the hyper woman's head, calming her down. "If it's a mission involving all three, we could add some hats or gloves. Alright?"

Embarrassed, she kept her head down and replied softly, "Yeah."

"Well, I was never properly introduced was I?" Ignis saved the awkward atmosphere by interrupting. Albus felt he did anyway, Furvus thought otherwise as proven by the daggers daggers he was sending Ignis' way. Ignoring him though, Ignis continued.

"My name is Ignis. I'm the beast form and I share a body with 2 others and I don't have a gender like you beings so feel free to refer to me as either pronoun."

"My name is Marianna. I share this body with Ignis and the other one. I am a sorceress. I have red eyes. So that's the symbol that I'm occupying the body."

"Hey, my name is Lawrence. Marianna is my wife and Ignis is my best friend. I have the green eyes and I'm a close to mid-distance fighter. By the way, Ignis has the pretty medium orchid and pineapple yellow eyes. He also isn't human, so he'll just borrow one of our human forms. I am also the toughest man alive since I have to deal with ma petite mer's tantrums." Inside his soul, he felt a chill as Marianna spoke, "Oh, so I throw tantrums?"

"No, my Queen. You would never." He trembled as he scrambled to save himself.

"Ignis, if you could be a dear and take over, that would be great. I have to throw a tantrum." She drawled the "great" and dragged Lawrence by his neck into the house.

"Ahhhh!" It's said that Lawrence's last words before getting brutally thrashed were 'If I controlled rewind, I would rewind to ten minutes ago, and I'd beat the dirty mouth which landed me here.'

. . .

"I just got word from Inamorato that the dears are starting." whispered Serenus. "The dears are going to grow so fast Sweetheart!"

"Don't cry yet. We still have to figure out what we want out lair - cough, cough - home to look like."

"We do not use our home as a sight for social experimentation or planning world domination! We've discussed this. Neutrum said if he ever found another bomb under his mattress that he would shave you bald everyday for a century!"

Wincing, Chao nodded sadly. "I understand."

"Good girl. Now I think we should go for a grand neo-classical mansion." Serenus patted her head before turning to look at the land in front of them.

"No, no no! I want a traditional Mediterranean style house!"

"We're throwing a ball in 6 days (chapter 4). We can't be too relaxed. We have to look presentable and impressive."

"But if we take the laid-back approach, we'll seem confident. We'll seem so confident that we could crush them with a lift of our finger! Which is true anyway! And if someone can't take the pressure, we can take it off for them!"

"Sweetheart, we're not provoking people into striking first just so that you can blow off some steam. Why don't we ask Neutrum?"

"No! He'll just say to make an entire town for everyone else while we live in our pagoda space!"

Serenus sighed, "How about we go for the second option Neutrum would suggest? Byzantine style."

She nodded and the two went to work. They danced in synchronization starting off with graceful ballet movements, transitioning to the more explosive charleston and finishing off with a tango.

Serenus looked down in deep thought. "Will we really be okay?"

Chao clapped her hands over Serenus' hands. "Yes we will. I'll destroy any enemy for you and Inamorato. Anything you two need, I'll do. As long as we're together, nothing will keep us down. We're almairusks after all."

"If I told you I might forgive them, will you still hurt them?"

Chao pulled Serenus close and connected Neutrum who was dreaming. The three embraced each other. "You complete me." Smiling, the three closed their eyes to feel this moment as the road ahead was a rocky one.