Cloudy With a Chance of Sunshine

Sigh

Dean let out a soft sigh as he stood in front of several people. Their faces varied from nervousness to being silently calm, but overall everyone was ready for what's about to happen. Even Mary, the only noncombatant, had a resolute look despite the occasional shaking. It was to be expected since she hadn't done any combat related activities since the 2nd year.

The group was assembled right outside the 4th year building each equipped with a weapon of some sort. They were standing near where the fountain with the weeping angel statue was. The darkness was slightly illuminated by their watch lights.

Freddie was seen wielding a bow with Mercury carrying a large two-handed hammer. Both weapons were scavenged from the defeated fiends earlier since they didn't have time to climb up the long flight of stairs to go to their rooms.

Bob had the cryo gun strapped to his back while carrying a scavenged crossbow. Since he was a regular human, he would be in the backline protecting Mary while she powered the turrets. The turrets themselves were successfully installed onto the hovercarts with an updated targeting system, personally coded by Kat.

Dean tighten his fist as he looked up at the fake night sky where unknown creatures were lurking. He silently pondered the pros and cons of turning the lights on, the fiends and even Ha-eun glowed in the dark. The glow was just enough to see them from far away, but at the same time there were husks and other creatures like the ones above that could sneak on them in the dark. They could just create spotlights but it'll be like a beacon for whatever is lurking above and below to swarm them. And despite the enhanced senses, espers could only make out the outlines of a person in the dark.

There was limited options on approaching this, they could take it slow but it would give Ha-eun more time to heal and mobilize more 'things' to attack them.

A couple of hours was enough time to prepare before Ha-eun somehow regains her strength...at least Dean's guts were telling him that.

So...

"Kat, switch to daylight. And everyone get into formation."

Kat nodded her holographic head next to him and pressed a button in the air.

There was no speeches as Dean wasn't close enough or charismatic enough to inspire them.

But, showing Ha-eun's severed arm was enough to show that she wasn't unstoppable and gave them enough drive to move forward.

Thinking that, Dean reminded the others before daytime came back outside.

"Remember to stay in formation no matter what happens, I will handle any surprises."

Dean's emotionless voice oddly had confidence in the others' ears. Whether it was because of his track record of being a successful group leader or that his voice had no confidence but also no fear, none would know or more like they had no time to know.

The Sun.

It was finally shining into their eyes.

Everyone's eyes except for Kat took some time to adjust and when they did, it was oddly cloudy.

No, they knew that it wasn't the artificial clouds causing the large shadows but...

"SCREEEE"

The monsters that were clinging to the high ceiling above them and the rest of Pleasantville. The sudden brightness alarmed the monsters causing them to scream and flop their wings in panic.

"Bro, that's too many f-for my arrows and even the g-guns."

"Bro, where did t-they all come from? Not even the w-wildlife had this many"

Freddie and Mercury were shaking now, it was to be expected. Above them, the flying monsters numbered in the thousands. It was far too many even outnumbering the wildlife creatures that lived at the edges of Pleasantville. 

As if the creatures sensed their fear, they then looked down towards them and began to dive down in flocks.

Dean turned to his trusty AI partner and calmly said, "Kat, make sure to target the clustered ones first."

[On it, but Dean even if we do that, it'll still exhaust our ammo just on these creatures alone.]

The turrets came alive once Kat turned on the kill switch while talking with Dean. Their .50 caliber rounds instantly started to shred through the flying creatures in scores.

"That's fine. I carved out hundreds of javelins in case of something like this."

Dean pushed his glasses up out of habit then turned to look at Mercury standing in front of him.

"Mercury, remember to maintain the shield above us no matter what. Let me know ahead of time if it's about to break. And Freddie, use the explosive arrows on the clusters that the turrets aren't shooting at."

""You got it br-Dean!""

Both of them shouted at the same time and immediately went to their assigned tasks.

Mercury erected a one way golden shield above their heads including the turrets, the group was clustered together. Except for the large pile of homemade javelins near them, everyone was safe under the energy shield.

Freddie, on the other hand, was releasing arrows after arrows against the seemingly endless swarm. His arrows always striking true with his strange esper ability. 

BOOM

Sometimes he releases one explosive arrow at a time.

BOOM BOOM

Sometimes he releases several at the same time.

But he never let an arrow go to waste, no, he couldn't afford to as the flyers were just the appetizers for what lays ahead in the center of Pleasantville.

Now that the flyers were close enough, Freddie could see that the creatures lack feathers or even furs. They were just naked featherless creatures that could only fly due to the thin membrane of their skin between their wings and legs. The creatures' bare saggy skin along with their red eyes and strange wings looked...

'Disgusting. I don't think I can look at a bird the same anymore'

Luckily, the four years of combat training plus Dean's calm demeanor helped to steady Freddie's nerves even though the sky was literally falling on them.

Meanwhile, Mary was steadily supplying the turrets with power using her electrical cables. She chose to look at the ground to avoid a possible panic attack from seeing what lays above her. Her heart was already shaking from hearing Freddie's and Mercury's comments earlier then the screeching along with gunfire and explosions, but she kept supplying the power to the turrets as it was the only way to stay alive. She knew staying inside where it was safe would only delay the inevitable, but following Dean had a slight chance of survival.

That slight chance to see her family again was better than nothing for Mary because she knew that this cloudy sky above her head was temporary. She could already see it as the artificial sun pierces through the cloudy sky above her head shining over the pools of dark red blood nearing her feet.