Scarlet Wings
The Scarlet Wings were the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids' elite, “specially-trained mobile task force”.
Nature
The Crew's normal procedure, after detecting a new universe through the Celestial Telescopes, was to send out the Scarlet Wings to scout it out. After they confirmed it was safe for romanticisation, normal patrols would start to be dispatched. (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids) They were also occasionally tasked with fact-finding missions. (PROSE: The Trio of the Talking Turkeys)
It had multiple “head operatives”, although there was a singular main leader — by 2019, Amity-965. Their rank was equal to that of Prefect, meaning they all had seats on the Cupid Parliament. (PROSE: Magic Trick)
Scarlet Wings operatives wore a distinctive badge. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
History
1980s
In 1986, the Scarlet Wings taskforce was still considered “newly-established”. (PROSE: The Society of the Rhyming Dove)
Prior to their retirement, Arganthone-056 belonged to the organisation. In 1984, they participated on a mission to the Euclidean Plane which involved them breaking into the Geometrons' Pentagon's Library, as they later recollected to Juliet-178 and Jenny Everywhere. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
In late 1986, the Scarlet Wings were sent to the Prime Universe to answer a request for a meeting by the Society of the Rhyming Dove. Although the encounter turned out to be just as benign as it sounded, the Cupids had elected to send the Scarlet Wings due to fearing a trick from the Gang of the Green Gorilla. (PROSE: The Society of the Rhyming Dove)
After the Mélange of the Mauve Muskrat bought out a wood supplier who had previously been cheaply providing the Cupids with the wood they needed for their Cupid Arrows, and raised their prices, a shortage of arrows made itself known in the Cupid Homeworld, later becoming known as the Great Arrow Crisis. A group of Scarlet Wings operatives travelled to Earth to investigate, but had to flee the Muskrats' headquarters when they realised they were dealing with another Strangely-Colored Secret Society.
Back in the Homeworld, the Scarlet Wings reported to the Cupid Parliament who ultimately ordered them to attack the Muskrats straight-on. When the Cupids returned to the Muskrats' HQ, they found it already under attack by the Green Gorillas, and stayed out of the fight until the stronger and more numerous Gorillas had won the fight, getting the Muskrats to sign ownership of the chemical plants over to them. The Scarlet Wings then romanticised a few of the Gorillas by lobbing bottles of Love Potion at them, and got the Gorillas to further intimidate the Muskrats into signing the lumber mill over to the Crew. (PROSE: The Mélange of the Mauve Muskrat)
1990s
In 1994, the Scarlet Wings (including Operative Amity-965) were dispatched to the Prime Universe to investigate after the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids' emergency supply warehouse on Earth was burgled. Finding a trail of “enormous feathers” left behind, the Scarlet Wings followed it back to what turned out to be the headquarters of the Mob of the Maroon Magpie, filled with stolen items, including many belonging to the Crew. They tried to take back the Cupids' possessions but accidentally triggered an alarm, summoning a number of Maroon Magpies. Although there was a brief scuffle, the Cupids and Magpies soon agreed to parlay and came to a provisional agreement (albeit not one the Cupid Parliament ended up ratifying after the Scarlet Wings returned to the Cupid Homeworld and made their report). (PROSE: The Mob of the Maroon Magpie)
2010s
A “few years” prior to 2019, Amity-965 was now the leader of the group. After the disappearance of Discovery-664 on a routine romanticisation mission to the Prime Earth, Scarlet Wings investigators led by Amity-965 sought to elucidate the event, and stumbled upon the empty Smog Ship of one of the Drove of the Demesmaekerite-Dyed Discordias D123-Blackheart, who subsequently became stranded in the Prime Universe as the Scarlet Wings members climbed inside and flew it to the Discordia Dimension.
There, they discovered the Drove's true nature, and confirmed that Discovery had been captured, when they were captured and brought before Eris. After the Discordias threatened to have them all melted down, Amity sent a distress signal to the Cupid Parliament using his two-way communicator, and they were rescued by a battalion of Fog Ships led by Amadeo-378. The Drove, in turn, realised the Crew's nature as their equals and opposites, and elected not to fight them. Upon returning to the Cupid Homeworld, the Cupids immediately reported to the Department of Documentation. (PROSE: The Drove of the Demesmaekerite-Dyed Discordias) The Cupid Parliament subsequently ordered the Scarlet Wings to be on high alert for any attack from the Discordias, but forbade the Wings from initiating hostile action against them. This fact was recorded in the Book of Evil as still being current Parliamentary policy when it was written in early 2019. (PROSE: The Book of Evil)
After the Cupids had had a few encounters with the Trio of the Talking Turkeys following their first meeting in 2013, the Scarlet Wings were tasked with investigating the Trio's origins and agenda, and successfully uncovered the circumstances of their creation by Professor Scarper in 1959. (PROSE: The Trio of the Talking Turkeys)
When the Copper-Colored Council of Elders put the Cupid Suggestion Box in place, Acquaintanceship-982 used it to leave a note suggesting that the Blue Feather be upgraded to replace the Scarlet Wings as the Crew's primary topics. When the Council rejected the proposal, pointing out the Blue Feather's less-than-impressive track record, Acquaintanceship tried to prop up its reputation by leaving an “anonymous” note praising the group, but the Council immediately saw through the charade and banned Acquaintanceship from using the Suggestion Box again. (PROSE: The Cupid Suggestion Box)
When the magic rabbits produced by the faceless magician's Hat flooded the Cupid Parliament building, leading Scarlet Wings operative Amity-965, who had been participating in the Parliamentary debate-turned-fistfight regarding Stenographer-123's typewriter, “considered assembling the Scarlet Wings and driving back this force of invaders, before being thrown to the ground by the tide of lagomorphs”. In the end, the Cupids evacuated the Homeworld en masse for three days, leaving the Department of Problem-Solving to deal with the crisis, as, indeed, they did. (PROSE: Magic Trick)
On Halloween 2019, when Dandy-432 organised a Blue Feather costume contest, Acquaintanceship-982 took this opportunity to dress as “himself, but a Scarlet Wings operative”, putting on a Blue Feather variant of the badge typically worn by Scarlet Wings operative. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
Marksmanship-522 was a Senior Agent of the organisation. After Tracker-764 and Bibliophile-962 helped Tracker during the Rifts Crisis, Marksmanship recommended the former for accelerated integration into the Scarlet Wings. The Hound was also given a honorary position within the group. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!)
