Also, it made me realize a number of glaring plot flaws, and how it seems like so many of the characters only have fairly small roles in the actual story. Harsh, but necessary. It also gave me the idea of making a series of short sidestories about the various characters just doing silly things, along with the main storyline. Considering what a worthless asshole I am though, it remains to be seen how well that will work out.
These scenes are all in chronological order, despite all being entirely disconnected. Enjoy, I guess.
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Man, now that I'm looking at it from here, that place is really kinda weird. And big. Big and weird.” Abigail said, squinting towards the city they'd left. Abigail had covered a surprising amount of ground despite traveling entirely on foot and carrying a dude over her shoulder.
Indeed, by normal city standards, it was pretty weird. Instead of being built on flat terrain and sprawling out for miles, it instead was built entirely on top of something that was too big to be a hill, yet too small to be a mountain. The buildings wrapped around the hill in layers, each one divided by a single, massive road that spiraled up the mountain in between the rows of buildings, an occasional gap in the construction allowing for cars to get from one part of the road to another quicker, or for people to get through. A few isolated “islands” of grass and trees provided the city with a few flecks of green color. Finally, at the very peak of the city was an enormous official-looking building that appeared to overlook the rest of the town. None of this, however, was what made Abigail think of it as weird.
“It's all gray and stuff. There's just too many buildings. Why would you possibly need that many buildings?” she asked, baffled by this concept.
“Um....there's a lot of people who come to live here, so....” Collin meekly piped up before being thumped on the back by Abigail.
“Shut up, I didn't actually want an answer. Anyway, let's just get out of this place.”
Soon, evening fell, the sky growing dark and millions of brilliantly shining stars coming into view. The crisp evening breeze flowed through the clearing, Abigail taking it in with a deep breath.
“Ah...it's a perfect night for a little bit of a celebration, don't you think?” Abigail asked happily, the group lounging lazily in the center of the meeting plaza. The meeting plaza was simply a large area covered in white stone tiles, with four illuminated oriental stone lanterns set at each corner of it. Namu was acting as a cushion for everyone else, with the other three leaning back against his soft, somewhat slimy body. Two large barrels of alcohol sat on the ground besides them; one which Namu drank directly out of, the other which Abigail and the rest used, each of them holding a small cup.
“Ohohoho, indeed. It's a lovely night to be drinking with your friends.” Namu chimed in jovially, his brown face blushing from the alcohol. “I'm really glad you're back, Abigail. Who else would I have to totally dominate in sparring matches?”
“Hey, hey, I've kicked your ass plenty too, don't go glossing that over,” she insisted, punching him lightly in his side. She then broke into a grin too. “....but yeah, I'm happy to be back here with you guys too. It kinda sucked out there, lemme tell ya.”
“Oh yeah, oh yeah! What was it like out there?” Cassandra chimed in with joyous enthusiasm.
“EH.” Abigail grunted, a look of displeasure coming over her face. “It was lame. It was all big and covered in houses, like, houses EVERYWHERE. And you can't just randomly try to fight people for some reason, apparently people there don't like that. It's weird.” she blathered, making various gestures and sloshing her booze around a bit, the other two looking at her and listening intently. Collin looked up at her, then meekly back into his cup. She glanced over at him.
“Oh yeah, that's right, you live there. Didn't mean to diss your home. Well, okay, I kinda did, but....yeah, whatever.” Abigail slurred out awkwardly before flopping back onto Namu's side. “Man, I'm talkin' all kinds of weird shit. I need more alcolohl.” Namu picked up a barrel with one of his whiskers and poured more into her cup. “Thank ya, m'man.” she mumbled before taking another sip.
“So, dudeguy, uh, Collin, what do you think of this place? Do you hate it like I hate your home? It's totally fine if you do, man, we can just like punch each other about it a bunch of times and everything will be peachy.” Abigail said, again with that straightforward earnestness that indicated she was trying to be nice. Collin looked up at her in surprise, then looked back into his cup.
“Well.....it's not bad, really. I'm just kinda weirded out by how...different it all is.” He began tentatively. “If I told people back home that I went out drinking with a giant catfish, they'd think I was mentally ill or something. That's, like, not something that happens there.”
Namu frowned in a concerned manner. “Well, that's not right at all. Those catfish must be really dull people.” he said thoughtfully, apparently thinking hard about this foreign concept.
“Er...yeah, that's it.” Collin said awkwardly, not having the heart to explain that fish didn't talk where he came from. “I dunno, just....everything's so different from what I'm used to. But, still.....” he trailed off, looking up at the brilliantly starry sky.
“This place....it's got such an air of freedom to it. Like, it makes me feel almost like I could do anything.” Collin said wistfully. The night breeze rustled through his hair. It really was a wonderful night. Collin typically didn't have the time or ability to enjoy this sort of thing since he always had to get up so early, and even though he was a few years past drinking age, he almost never had time to enjoy alcohol. Abigail grinned happily at him, her sharp fangs on full display.
“That's the spirit, kid. C'mon, what do you wanna do?” She asked abruptly. Collin looked at her in surprise.
Collin thought a bit. Then he gulped down the rest of the contents of his cup, held it up, and said “....I'd like another drink, actually.” Abigail laughed.
“What, that's it? There's gotta be more, right?” she asked, prodding him with her elbow, a goofy grin on her face.
“Hey, hey, I'll have you know that I NEVER have time to drink or stay out late or anything like this. This shit is magical to me, man.” Collin blurted out, realizing shortly afterward how much that last fragment sounded like something she would say. Abigail stared at him with surprise, her eyebrow raised.
“You poor bastard!” she remarked. “Well, you know what that means, eh?” she said, reaching across Collin's torso to punch Cassandra in the elbow, who was apparently falling asleep and starting to drool.
“Eh? What does what mean?” she asked dreamily, slowly returning to a conscious state.
“Collin said he doesn't get to chill out and drink at night back at his place!” Abigail said, as though this was a major crisis.
“Wha? How?” she asked, still vaguely asleep. “Well, uh, that won't do.” Popping open her giant urn, she reached in and pulled out a cup at least twice the size of the ones they were using before. Before Collin knew it, the cup was slammed down in front of him and filled to the brim with booze.
“Damn, that actually looks pretty nice.” Abigail remarked. “Cass, gimme one of those too!”
“Me too!” Namu chorused.
“You have a whole fucking barrel to yourself, what more do you want?” Abigail snarked, punching him in the side.
“I want ALL the booze!” Namu roared jokingly, lifting up Abigail by one leg with one of his whiskers and shaking her vigorously. “EVEN THE BOOZE YOU'VE ALREADY DRUNK!”
“YOUR EVIL PLAN WILL NEVER SUCCEED!” Abigail shouted in response, trying not to vomit as Cassandra and Collin pointed and laughed hysterically. Collin felt warmer and more joyous than he had in a long time. Despite them first meeting each other by her threatening to dismember him and then abducting him, everything wound up turning out amazingly well. Suddenly a look of discomfort came over Collin's face, before trying to laugh it off.
“Ahahaha oh man I gotta piss.” he confessed meekly.
“GROSS.” Abigail grunted at him, still dangling upside down from Namu's whisker.
“Everyone has to urinate sometime, Abigail!” Namu chastised her before gesturing with his other whisker. “We're right near the forest, so go there, nobody's gonna mind.”
“Thaaaank yooooou!” Collin said, dashing off awkwardly towards the forest.
About a minute later, Collin was a few feet in the forest; not so far he couldn't see where he came from, but far enough to not be visible. A relieved smile was plastered on his face as his overstressed bladder emptied.
Just as he was zipping up and preventing me from having to write anything involving his dong, the ominous sound of a twig cracking commanded his full attention. A few tense moments passed, but nothing appeared to happen.
Then, just as he was about to turn and leave, a small female face peered around one of the trees, giving Collin a start and causing him to step back. Her mouth was emotionless, her eyes opened eerily wide in a gaze that could stare straight through him. After a few moments, she came out from behind the trees.
She had a small build, and was a tad shorter than Collin. Her hair was long and flowed down to the middle of her back, a large red bow decorating the top of her head. She wore a long dress that seemed to completely obscure her feet with large pink hearts that alternated between right-side up and upside down along the bottom of it, and also wore a small cravat. The most notable part was her arms, however. One had a normal shape, but appeared to be made of wood and had doll-like joints, as well as a bizarre, spiraling black pattern etched into it. The other was a massive, plush limb with no apparent joints; it looked like a piece of a teddy bear, almost, except it had no fuzz, visible stitches all over it, and, most eye-catching of all, three massive, long needles emerging from the ends, almost like a set of claws. A small drop of a questionable liquid rolled off the tip and dropped to the ground, landing on a fallen green leaf. Almost instantly, the once fertile leaf shriveled into a brown, withered husk. Collin shivered instinctively as she continued staring at him with those massive, empty eyes, before taking a step forward; or maybe it wasn't even that, as she seemed to simply glide over the ground.
“H-hello there. Nice night, eh?” Collin squeaked out nervously, hoping that she only looked creepy and was actually nice. She continued staring, before tilting her head quizzically.
“You are very powerless, aren't you?” a calm, emotionless voice slid out from her mouth.
“....eh?” Collin asked, a nervous smile pasted onto his face.
“Interesting.” she continued, apparently having inferred something from this. “To think that someone like you would be here....” she slid forward, advancing on him. Collin began stumbling backwards out of the woods. “It isn't safe to be so weak here. You might wind up like me....” she continued as her mouth twisted into a small smile, an ominous titter of laughter coming out. Even though Collin had done so only a few seconds ago, he felt like he was about to void his bladder, stumbling backwards as she glided towards him.
Before anything embarrassing could happen, though, a large mound of earth shot up from the ground and knocked the doll-girl skyward, a small jet of blood comically spurting out of her mouth as she tumbled through the air. Namu's enormous head popped out of the ground in front of Collin as he recoiled in surprise, a large frown spread across his wide face.
“Grimoire, don't be such a creeper. Of course, I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less from you.” he said, giving a roll of his enormous eyes.
“Holy Christ! Uhm, good timing man.” Collin squeaked in surprise as Grimoire slammed headfirst into the ground in front of the both of them and didn't move. Namu turned to face him.
“Eh, it's nothing, I was just watching you pee and figured it was the least I could do.” he replied nonchalantly.
“....what?” Collin asked disbelievingly.
“I'm just kidding! Or maybe I'm not. It's up to the power of your imagination!” he laughed heartily. Collin wondered how this fish could somehow make the most confusing and mildly creepy statements sound like manly declarations. “Anyway, hop on my back, I'll give you a lift back to the plaza.”
“What about her?” Collin asked as Grimoire coughed a bit and started rising back up to her feet, a look of annoyance on her face.
“You blasted catfish. Why do you and the others always do things like this? I was only trying to give him a fair warning.” she said, annoyance tainting her otherwise emotionless voice.
“What you were pretty clearly doing was being a creep.” Namu responded, his eyes half-lidded as he pointed a fin at her. “And that's why we beat you up every now and again. Maybe if you didn't act like such a giant creeper you'd have saved yourself a lot of trouble.”
“Hmph. I was just trying to warn your weakling little friend of something.” she spat bitterly.
“Well, warn him then.” Namu said, rolling his eyes. She simply sighed in response.
“Oh, forget it. I'll just be going now.....” she muttered. Slowly, she turned and glided back into the forest, slumped over with her arms hanging limply. The two watched her go, Collin with a look of vague confusion and Namu with a stern frown.
“Well, then! Let's get back and drink some more!” Namu said, instantly shifting back to drunken heartiness.
“Can I still ride on your back?” Collin asked meekly.
“No.”
And so, with some brief explanations of what transpired (with a few interjections of Abigail and Cassandra along the lines of “HURRRRR GRIMOIRE IS A CREEPER”) the group resumed their little festival.
Collin, however, simply couldn't regain his previously merry demeanor. The doll's haunting demeanor and cut-off warning that actually didn't warn him of anything remained stuck in his head, ruining any chance of him actually enjoying himself much more. What she said was true; he was, admittedly, sort of a pussy. He was starting to have a feeling that staying any long wouldn't be a terrifically good idea.
Making up his mind, once everyone had gone to sleep, he made his way back to the forest's edge.
The next morning......
“Ehhhh? You're heading back? I thought you liked this place.” Abigail asked sleepily, scratching her head as she stared at him dully.
“Um...yeah, I do, and it's been nice meeting you and all, but.....I just don't feel like I belong here. And my home is back there and all, so....” Collin said shyly, staring at his feet. Abigail scrutinized him.
“Eh, fine. I did kinda abduct you and all. I guess you've probably got some family members to get back to or something.” she shrugged and sighed. “Well, it's been interesting, at least.”
“...yeah.” Collin said after a brief pause. Interesting, and also mildly ridiculous. “I guess I'll be going now then....” he said quietly, turning to head out the door.
“Seeya around sometime.” Abigail called after him. Collin didn't respond; he wasn't sure he would. Taking a look back as he exited the house, the wind blew once more, causing the fields to ripple beautifully in the breeze.
Collin actually did kind of want to stay. It was just such a different, beautiful place; but he had his apartment and job and boring life obligations to get back to. He knew that sort of stuff had to take priority as he trudged half-heartedly through the vast field and out the border of the realm, the hillside city melting into view as he passed through the invisible barrier that separated the two worlds, leaving him once again within the empty expanse he had come in from. Then he realized, as he was looking at the city he called home, that he was going to have to do a shitton of walking to get there again.
“Well, balls.” he muttered.
However, his return had not gone unnoticed. In the base that Abigail and Collin had absconded from, a small blip appeared on a screen in one of the search rooms. The city's location systems, as odd as it seemed, only were able to pinpoint signals that were within the city's limits; the government had decided that if something was outside, it usually wasn't terribly important to know exactly where it was, be it personnel or a threat, and thus the room devoted to scanning the outside wasn't particularly big or fancy. This methodology didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it certainly did make any attacks or crimes extremely perilous for any criminals within the limits and more or less kept the city safe, so they continued to work with it.
“Sir! A signal has appeared somewhere outside the city! We can't pinpoint its location, but it's one of ours!”an excitable young man in uniform called into the microphone on his desk.
“What?” Carter's voice responded. His mustache brimmed with thought for a moment, before realizing that it must be that expendable young chump who got abducted by the murderous light-manipulating girl. “Dispatch a search helicopter immediately! We need to bring him back here as soon as we can!”
“Sir, why is it so urgent?” The young man asked tentatively.
“That's the guy who got kidnapped by our escaped subject. He may have some vital information on her, or where she's from!” his voice resounded over the intercom with urgency.
“Ah, right away then!” he responded. With that, he vigorously thrust his finger onto a large red button on the control panel. Almost immediately, a siren blared forth, and a shutter opened from somewhere on the top of the hill slid open, allowing a helicopter to emerge. It hovered motionless for a while, before swiftly cutting through the sky towards its destination.
It was only a few minutes later that it descended, its target in sight. Collin stared upwards with his eyes shielded from the sun, feeling a mixture of anticipation and mild fear as the ladder descended and he clambered in, the chopper flying back to the city with its passengers in near total silence.
“....So, did like, my boss send you to pick me up?” he asked. He wondered if he had actually worried anyone with his disappearance.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. He had some questions, I think,” one of the pilots responded.
“...ah.” Collin asked. He had a feeling threadbare rooms and intensive questioning would ensue.
Surely enough, once the helicopter landed, Collin was briskly led down a number of familiar corridors before being led into a somewhat empty room containing nothing but a small wooden table and a pair of rather nice chairs. The room itself was actually rather nice, despite its emptiness; the rug was a nice argyle pattern and there was a small refrigerator in the corner. Collin actually felt entirely comfortable.
Before long, Carter silently entered the room, shutting the door behind him. He remained standing with his arms folded behind his back, peering down at Collin over his mustache. Did I mention his mustache yet? Since I don't think I can emphasize his awesome mustache enough.
“Well, it's good that you managed to return to us safely,” he began. There was a momentary pause as he realized he had no idea who this guy's name was and swiftly darted his eyes towards Collin's name tag. “....Collin.” he finished. Collin half-lidded his eyes in response as Carter took a seat across from him on the table “Now, as I'm sure you're aware, that one....subject....whatever her name was, was confined here due to her violent nature initially. However, now we're a bit more interested in her abilities, and whatever nonsense she was talking about. Would you have happened to pick up anything interesting while she had abducted you?” he asked, propping up his head on his arms.
Collin hesitated. He knew a good deal, sure, but he had a feeling that if he gave away too much, they might take hostile action and bad things would happen. He didn't think he'd be able to live if anything bad happened to that place as a result of him spilling the beans; after all, it seemed pretty nice, and Abigail was.....something approximating a friend, he guessed.
Carter gave him a forceful stare with his hardened eyes, and Collin realized that at the same time, he probably couldn't lie to his boss or the government about this, or even more bad things would happen, only this time to him. He might even wind up in jail, where bad things would almost definitely happen to his virginity. He let out a lengthy sigh.
“Well, okay, I guess I have no choice but to tell you.” he said reluctantly. “But what exactly will you do?”
“That will depend entirely on what kind of information you give us.” Carter asked. “Also, if you even think of lying.....” he pressed a button underneath the table. With astonishing, mechanical swiftness, two small hatches in the seemingly wooden backrest of Collin's nice chair unfolded, and a pair of tasers on spindly mechanical arms emerged and jammed themselves into Collin's neck. Collin's pupils shrunk as he gulped loudly. Carter resumed his interested observer position, his eyes now almost predatory in their focus.
“Well, she, um....took me to the place where she lives.” Collin spat out. Carter's eyes widened in surprise.
“Why on Earth did she do something like that?” he asked, his mustache brimming with mild confusion.
“Well, SOMEONE ordered helicopters to attack us, and in a panic she sort of grabbed me and hightailed it.” Collin looked at Carter with mild suspicion before sighing. “She's strong and all, but....sometimes it seems like she actually doesn't really know what she's doing.”
“Hmm. So, what was it like? Did you see any more of her kind?” he inquired. Collin screwed up his face in thought, wondering how to word this.
“Well, um. There were more people there who had weird traits like her, but I didn't see anyone else with fangly teeth and an anglerfish lure. They were all pretty radically different. Not even her sister looked anything like her.” He figured it might be best to leave the giant catfish out of his descriptions. Carter “hmmmmm”ed again in thought and looked downwards. A moment of silence passed.
Carter then fixed his eyes on Collin once more. “So. Do you remember the location of where, exactly, she took you?”
Collin began internally panicking. If he was asking that, it almost definitely meant that he was planning to visit, or invade, or something else. This was one thing that he knew he simply couldn't tell him. Swallowing, he tried to produce a convincing-sounding fib.
“I was unconscious for most of the trip there, she carried me there.” It was half a true statement, at least.
Carter simply gazed at him with that predatory concentration, eyebrows furrowed. Collin nearly began panicking, and tried his hardest to contain his nervousness.
After a far-too-long moment, however, Carter pressed the button underneath the table again, and the robotic taser arms removed themselves from his neck and slid back into the chair, the hatches sliding closed and leaving almost no sign that they were there at all. Collin let out a mild “Eh?” of surprise as Carter stood up and folded his arms behind his back.
“Very well, that will be all. You're permitted to return to your home, and have the rest of the day off before we expect you to return to work.” he gave a brief salute. “Until then.” With that, he turned and strolled out of the room. Collin sat by himself awkwardly for a few moments before realizing that he was going to be heading out on his own, and hesitantly left the room and maneuvered the labyrinthine halls out of the building. After a few minutes, he managed to get to one of the streets below, and hailed a cab back to his apartment.
As the cab bumped its way down the spiraling hillside road, Collin gazed out the window vacantly, his head in a flurry of thoughts. He could have sworn that Carter could have seen straight through his fib. Did he just not want to electrocute someone? Or did he actually manage to pull off a semi-convincing lie for once? Maybe he was plotting something else, too. Collin also realized his boss was almost eerily similar to a villain, but this revelation didn't actually help him at all.
“Oy, kid, we're here.” The cabbie called, snapping Collin out of his thoughts. He was so caught up in thought that he'd pretty much completely forgotten he was on his way home.
“Ah, ah, right. Thank you.” he said nervously, fishing about awkwardly in his pants for money. He eventually produced the fare and a rather generous tip. The cabbie gave him yellow-toothed grin of gratitude, and zipped off down the street, leaving Collin on the curb outside his apartment building. He stared up at the building with familiarity, then went inside.
His room was just as dim as he remembered it. Collin didn't have a roommate, but he managed to be industrious enough to pay the rent on his own. The main room contained the small kitchen, a dining table, sofa, and TV; the latter two were near the far end of the room, next to a large shuttered window. The shutters didn't open, or maybe Collin had just never bothered to. Off to the left were the doors to the bathroom and bedroom, which Collin tiredly wandered into. His bed looked just as big and puffy as ever; he gratefully flopped onto it. Peering up towards his dresser near another shuttered window, he noticed all his models were intact; the top of his dresser was mostly covered with ships, planes, rockets, and the occasional super robot in a ridiculous pose. Shifting the other way, he turned to face his computer desk, which he had set up directly next to his bed so he could get access to his laptop from his bed. It was a simple, nerdy comfort, but one he relished in.
Flipping it open, he quickly logged in. He hadn't closed his internet browser from the last time he went on, so all his familiar haunts were immediately presented to him. He smiled a little bit. None of his chat friends were online; eh, that's okay. Checked his email; nothing other than a message from his mom. The two didn't see each other often; she always was proud that he'd managed to become so independent.
As Collin continued browsing his familiar haunts and playing his games, however, the warmth and comfort slowly began to fade, his smile decreasing bit by bit into complete passiveness. Eventually, a thought came into his head; one that he didn't really like to entertain, but it was a truth he couldn't deny.
Nobody in this city, or elsewhere, had really missed him.
Collin stopped what he was doing and rose into a sitting pose, his head hanging down.
Well, okay, so nobody had missed him. But he missed this place, didn't he? He missed his internet, his TV, his models and stuff. Soon he'll be able to go back to working and living his normal, semi-cheerful life. That's good, right?
Only he didn't actually feel like such a life was really that cheerful anymore. Did any of that really have much of a meaning?
Eventually, this led to a single question entering his head, one that he couldn't possibly ignore.
What did he even come back here for?
No, no. He shook his head. This was where he belonged. He couldn't live in that place, he'd never fit in will all the crazy shit that goes on there. Besides.....
“Even if you don't intend to, you're going to bring disaster to this place somehow,” Grimoire's voice whispered silently as she stared up at the starry sky. “Especially if you remain as pitiful as you are now.” Collin stared at her with a mixture of fear and slight sadness, then shifted his gaze to his feet.
“Collin, I am only telling you this for your own good. You must go back to where you belong now, while you still have a chance to do so. If Blank notices you, things will probably not end well. Who knows how she'll react....” Grimoire said, a trace of caring in her voice. Collin looked up at her, puzzled.
“Who's Blank?” he asked quietly. Grimoire looked from side to side nervously.
“She's God.”
He shivered silently as he remembered Grimoire's warning. If there was any reason not to go back, it was probably whatever catastrophe he would probably inadvertantly cause. ESPECIALLY if it involved pissing off a God.
There was a long period where he simply sat quietly, unsure of what to do.
But she doesn't KNOW for a fact that you'll piss off Blank, right? Floated through his head.
Collin sat straight up, something apparently occurring to him. Even if he stays there, there's no GUARANTEE that he'll wind up angering Blank somehow. And he'll only bring catastrophe if he stays weak, right? What if he trained with Abigail and got stronger?
Rapidfire thoughts of assurance and determination began flowing forth; some of them didn't really make sense, or even really contradict Grimoire's points, but none of that mattered. He was getting into an almost Abigail-esque mindset of anti-logical determination. He knew what he had to do.
He was going to go back. Maybe he'd live there, maybe he'd only stay for a bit longer, but he knew that there was more waiting for him there than here.
He leapt out of bed and into his kitchen; he had to make preparations, after all.
“You've gotta be fucking shitting me.”
The two gaped at what they saw before them; Abigail in disbelief, Collin in sheer confusion.
In their breakout attempt, they had somehow stumbled upon possibly the biggest secret the town's government had been keeping. An enormous, frozen subterranean chamber sprawled out before them, with the opposite end ramping upwards towards a massive vertical gate. The chamber was home to a colossal chunk of ice easily the size of a large hill. A network of improvised wooden platforms had been built around it, allowing the workers to more easily move about and perform whatever work they happened to be doing. However, it was what the ice contained that made it astonishing. Frozen inside the block of ice was an absolutely enormous creature nearly identical to an anomalocaris. Its segmented, coiled-up body was beige in color and incredibly long, continuing on for thousands of feet before ending in three small, curled tails. A set of large fin-like appendages jutted out from every other segment of its body, each being yellowish in hue and red on the ends. Its hooked mandible-like claws jutted out from the ice, as its face was near the top of the chunk; the ice was hardly large enough to contain the massive creature.
“Burgess?!” Abigail cried in shock, garnering a look of confusion from Collin. “Wait, you know this thing?” Collin asked, still holding his laser pistol tightly; the barricade of debris they left behind them on the way here was solid, but wouldn't last forever. He knew those armored guards would get through to them eventually, and was still on red alert.
“He's the embodiment of history! He's been missing for months, but we'd all thought he was just napping, or something. What the hell's he doing here?!” Abigail shouted, before shooting a glance at Collin. “C'mon, we've gotta get him outta there.” she grunted, grabbing Collin's arm and dragging him over to the walkways. She then stopped and threw him straight upwards and onto the highest level of the walkway, Collin wailin' and flailin' as he flew through the air before landing on his ass with a painful thud.
“Dammit, Abigail, I could have walked up here.” he groaned, looking over the walkway's edge at her.
“That woulda taken too long! C'mon, use your zappy thing to melt the ice!” Abigail called to him.
“Kay, fine,” he relented. Collin looked over the chunk briefly before noticing how shallow the ice around the creature's head was. Thinking that the creature may wake up if its head thawed out and thus might be able to break out, he aimed his pistol at the creature's head and started firing a steady, weak beam. As the ice began to sizzle and melt, Abigail began climbing the walkway's support beams to try and get up to the top as fast as she could. Before long, the ice completely dissipated around the creature's head as Abigail reached the top. There was an awkward pause as the two stared at the crustacean's head expectantly.
Then, slowly but steadily, its mouthparts began to shift, and its head begin to slowly wriggle to shake off some of the moisture on it. It refocused its lidless, black eyes on the pair, apparently in thought as it slowly awakened. After what felt like a full minute, a deep, thoughtful voice emerged.
“Abigail?” It inquired dreamily. Abigail breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
“Oh god, you're alright! I was worried you might not wake up again....” she explained, her hand on her head. “C'mon, we've gotta get you out of that ice. Do you think you can move? What happened, anyway?”
“I am not entirely certain. I remember coming out of our realm to make a brief recording of what the lands outside were like...it was most curious....but there were loud noises, and flames, and....oh dear, how has my eternal memory failed me? This is most troubling.....” Burgess slowly said, his voice a thoughtful mutter. A look of concern took over Abigail's face.
“It must've be really bad if YOU'RE forgetting things, Burgess. Well, let's not worry about that now. Do you think you can break free?” Abigail asked, kneeling to get closer to eye level with his enormous head. Burgess began to strain his body to move. The ice slowly began to creak and some slight cracks began to form, but soon he began to get worn out and gave up.
“No good, this encasing is simply too thick. Perhaps if you weakened a few points around it, though....” he shifted to look at Collin. “You are the one who freed my head, yes? Perhaps you could melt the sides of the ice a bit?”
“S-sure thing. I'll do whatever I can.” he responded, before giving a nervous salute and taking off down the walkway to try and spot another area where the ice was thinnest.
Abigail watched for a moment before returning to her feet. “I'll go too. C'mon Collin, let's do this!” she roared before tearing off in the other direction.
“This looks like a good spot....hey, um, Mr. Crustacean, I've weakened the spot on your right. Can you feel anything there?” Collin asked, his weak death ray sizzing away at the side of the ice.
“Ah, yes....that's good. You might want to stand back a bit.” Burgess warned. Shortly afterwards, massive cracks started forming around the area, and a massive sheath of the ice broke apart and slid free, plummeting to the floor below and cracking into tiny shards on impact. With a segment of his body free again, Burgess's large fins began to move through the air and his body began to shift slightly.
“Mmm...I'm starting to regain some feeling there. Abigail, how're things on your end?”
“Think I found a good spot. This maaaaay sting a bit.” Abigail called. A loud “HAH!” and a smashing noise echoed from the other side of the ice, followed by the sound of ice cracking.
“Abigail, did you just punch that ice apart?” Collin called from his side of the ice.
“Well, I cracked it, anyway... that kinda hurt.” Abigail's voice echoed.
“That's good, you've done enough.” The noise of the ice cracking and sliding apart followed from the other side of the ice. “Ah, terrific, feeling is returning to my body.....”
A heavy pounding suddenly came from the door, followed by the voices of guards. Collin and Abigail immediately shifted their attention, and Burgess looked over as best he could.
“WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, FUGITIVES. We don't know what you're plotting, but we're going to get in there eventually. It'll go a lot better for everyone if you just open the door and surrender now.”
“Shit. Let's speed this up, Collin.” Abigail remarked, tearing off across the walkways. Collin grunted an “Uh” of approval and continued the other way.
“....hello? Guys?” the voice asked plaintively as the two continued ignoring him and trying to thaw out Burgess. Soon a muttering amongst the guards could be heard.
“I dunno, now I'm not so sure. Are they really in there?”
“Well, we saw them go in, didn't they?”
“But this is that crazy anglerfish chick! What if it was an illusion?”
“She can make holograms?!”
“Can the holograms still tear your arms off?”
“God dammit, Steve, let it go already.”
“But she dismembered my brother!”
“Oh great, now he's crying again.”
“ENOUGH!” Carter's voice roared. “JUST OPEN THE DOOR!”
“I think we're just about outta time....” Collin moaned as another sheathe of ice broke away.
With a loud bang, the door blew in, a smoldering crater left in it. Through the smoke, a horde of the armored guards stormed in, their momentum slowly leaving them before they simply stopped and began to stare. Carter strode in after them, before similarly stopping.
“What the hell is the meaning of this?!” He spat violently. Collin shrunk down and tried to not be seen as Abigail stormed over to the edge of the walkway and Burgess tried to shift his head over to look at them.
“We're trying to free him, you jackass!” She shouted back. Carter rolled his eyes in annoyance.
“I can see THAT much. What I mean is, WHY IS THERE A GIANT CRUSTACEAN FROZEN IN OUR BASEMENT?” he roared back. Abigail's face took on an incredulous look, and Collin joined Abigail on the edge of the walkway.
“Wait, you didn't know about this either?” Collin asked.
“Oh don't play dumb, asshole! If you locked me up, what makes me think I'll believe you're not responsible for this either?” Abigail shouted back. Burgess stirred and made a loud clicking noise, commanding the attention of everyone in the room.
“Wait. My memory is returning....ah, yes, it's all becoming clear now....those armored ones attacked me with explosives and other bizarre devices I've never seen before. I had to land t avoid them, but there they trapped me in a net and took me in. There was one at the head who came to examine me and decided to keep me here. Presumably they thought I was a threat to their town.” Burgess's voice echoed through the room.
“W-well, are you one?” one of the soldiers asked nervously.
“Oh heavens, no. I was merely curious.”
“Wait wait wait, you said you saw the leader, right? Then that's proof that mustachio over here's lying!” Abigail interjected hastily. Burgess shook his head.
“Oh no, it wasn't him. It was someone different.”
“How the hell has this been a secret from me?! I'm the one who commands this district!” Carter shouted angrily. He cast his gaze over the guards. “You haven't been undermining me, have you? I'll have each and every ONE of you dogs fired!” he roared, causing them to fly into a panic and all start shouting excuses over one another. Abigail watched the crowd with a mix of derision and confusion. Before long, Burgess spoke up.
“Well, I'm afraid I do not have the answers to this. I'm also afraid that I must be leaving now, for I am rather sick of this place.” With that, the room began to rumble. The ice cracked and creaked as massive fractures formed through it. Chunk upon chunk of the ice broke away, revealing more and more of his body, his fins flapping freely once more. Finally, with a massive “HAH!” Burgess flexed his entire body, and an explosion of icy shards engulfed the room. Everyone shielded their faces and looked away to block the debris.
When they looked back, the ice had been completely devastated, and Burgess was in the air, floating freely. Flapping his fins softly, he slowly lowered his enormous body to the ground. Abigail leaped down from the walkway to the ground beside him as Collin began running back down the walkway to join her. Carter and the guards simply watched in awe.
Abigail looked over her shoulder at the crowd. “Hey, mustache guy. We're leaving now. You don't have a problem with this since you're not in charge, right?” Abigail asked lightly.
“Hm. I don't see any reason why I should.” Carter grumbled, an air of vague confusion and uncertainty in his voice.
Suddenly, the soldiers all armed their weapons and aimed directly at Burgess as he twisted his head around to look and Collin reached the bottom of the walkway.
“What's the meaning of this?!” Carter shouted. In response, one of the guards swiftly about-faced and placed a gun to Carter's neck.
“Sorry, but I can't let that happen.” A new and entirely foreign voice echoed through the air, this one much less grizzled than Carter's; it sounded as though it belonged to a somewhat younger man. Carter shot his head upwards.
“Commander Argon! What do you think you're doing?! This city is MY domain, have you forgotten how the hierarchy goes?!” He roared.
“Terribly sorry, Carter, but this 'other world' business you've stumbled upon is something much bigger than you can handle. I'm taking over.”
“You do realize the council will never let you get away with this.” Carter growled. “This is absolute treason!”
“Oh, and what'll you tell them? That I was keeping a giant monster in your base without your permission? This is far beyond you, Carter. Think about the potential. A country full of creatures with inexplainable powers that refuses to associate with us, yet has no formal military? The place should be ours for the taking, their secrets and powers ours to command!” Argon replied callously.
“You mean you just want to sweep on in and use us as tools for your own ends?! You don't even care about any sort of peace?!” Abigail shouted, her rage mixing with disbelief. Burgess started slowly moving towards the ramp up to the exit.
“How ironic of you to speak of peace when you were the one who's dismembered our staff before for no real reason. It's obvious that your kind is too dangerous to be around unchecked. Sure, you may be content with your land now, but for how much longer? What will happen when you creatures need more land and resources? An invasion from your kind seems inevitable; it's better for us to strike first!” Argon shouted angrily as Burgess slowly began picking up speed. “I don't have time to converse with you anymore. All troops, open fire!”
A blast of energy from one of the guards' rifles hurled through the air, smashing into Burgess head and causing him to flinch and rear back slightly, making a strange hissing noise in pain. Soon a storm of energy and explosives tore through the air, smoke and explosions concealing him from view. After a period, the barrage stopped.
Then a pair of gleaming red lights shone through the haze.
“I see. I see how your kind is now.” Burgess's voice resonated through the air; but it was different. All the gentleness and thoughtfulness it once contained had completely dissipated. It was now an ominous, emotionless rumble. The smoke cleared away; his once beady black eyes were now pure, blood red. Collin and Abigail looked on in astonishment.
“B....Burgess?” Abigail asked, true worry seeping into her voice as, with a great shifting sound, he turned around and began heading towards the guards, their projectiles having no effect on his steady procession.
“You try to contain what you don't understand. You don't care in the slightest about the thoughts and feelings of anyone different from yourselves. You automatically assume the worst about others, and then deliberately bring out the worst in them to prove yourselves correct. And when all else fails, you resort to violence.” his voice echoed, his speed increasing, his fins steadily beating. “You truly are an absolutely loathsome kind. I feel now as though I must rid myself of you.”
With that, he lifted off the ground, and with alarming speed, turned upwards and smashed straight through the cement roof. Rubble began cascading down upon the guards as his long body ground its way through the opening, while Abigail and Collin watched in astonishment. Several guards were crushed under huge chunks of cement, causing the rest to fly into a panic. Seeing an opening, Carter smashed the guard holding the gun to his neck over the head with the butt of his own pistol. As the guard slumped to the ground, he slipped through the doorway and disappeared.
“I guess we should get going too,” Collin meekly suggested. “Oh man, now what're we gonna do?”
“We have to stop Burgess, clearly.” Abigail responded, gravely serious. Collin looked at her incredulously.
“How the hell are we going to do that? The guard's weapons had absolutely no effect on him!” Collin whined, before getting cut off by a glare from Abigail.
“It doesn't fucking MATTER how, we just have to stop him! If he goes on a rampage like this, the consequences won't be good for EITHER of our worlds. I don't think I've ever seen him pissed off like this.” Abigail responded, grave severity in her voice. “Not to mention how Blank will react when she hears about this.....”
Collin gulped. “Well....let's go, then.” he nervously muttered as he turned to face the massive gate, hitting a button on the control panel next to it. Light flooded in as the gate slowly slid open, allowing the two to dash out into the street.
No sooner had they done so did Burgess hurtle through the air above them, whipping up a blast of wind. His multitudinous fins beating steadily, he swept through the air and out over the rest of the town. As his figure had just began to shrink into the distance, he pulled a slow loop and turned around towards them, picking up speed as he began to descend towards the buildings below, tilting his body to the side, his fins nearly touching the ground.
“What's he doing?” Collin asked, a split second before an awful crashing sound filled the air. In what felt like an instant, Abigail tackled him to the side as a deafening symphony of destruction filled the air before ceasing almost as quickly. Looking up, Collin was shocked to find that the underground building, and the buildings in front of it, had been sliced cleanly in half by Burgess's fins. The two halves of each building teetered precariously back and forth, before collapsing in on each other into heaps of rubble.
It wasn't long before Burgess's presence was responded to. The sound of a cannon resounded through the air, and an explosion occurred near Burgess's body, grabbing his attention. Hidden gates opened on all the levels of the spiraling city streets, and a battalion of tanks emerged, spread out all over the city. Anti-aircraft guns emerged shortly afterward, flipping out from seemingly derelict buildings.
Before long, explosions and gunfire tore through the skyline. Burgess sped up his flight, ascending higher into the sky as the two watched. Abigail grabbed Collin's arm to get his attention.
“C'mon, let's go. Those guys will probably slow him down, at least.”
“So do you know what we should actually do now?” Collin meekly asked.
Abigail's simply stared at him with a blank expression that pretty clearly indicated that thought was not occurring. “....well, we'll figure something out. Or rather, you will. C'mon, let's go,” she said rapidly, as if trying to prevent him from being able to formulate a response, then leapt off the street and down the hillside of the city, dragging a panicking Collin along once again.
“Whyyyyyyy?!” Collin wailed.
As the two tore down the side of the city, the situation changed from defensive fire to an all out war between the city's forces and the massive flying creature. Burgess's rage simply amplified with every attack the force launched towards him, his once mellow, thoughtful nature completely buried underneath the hate he felt towards the people who had imprisoned him for their own gains and then tried to destroy him. Unable to think clearly, all he felt was unstoppable anger and aggression; his primordial nature had taken over.
Using his enhanced altitude he dipped back down and went into a divebomb towards the city, smashing into a cluster of apartments and collapsing them upon a pair of tanks and completely burying them. Looping around to be directly above the city street he collapsed the apartments onto, he once again tilted sideways, his bladed fins slicing through the ground along the street towards a platoon of now-panicking soldiers. One of them just barely managed to pull off a shot at Burgess with a grenade launcher before turning tail and fleeing with the rest of the pack, the grenade missing and exploding on a building as Burgess tore after them, his blades getting closer and closer.
Before he could tear them in half, however, a huge anti-aircraft gun appeared around the corner and launched a cartoonishly enormous missile at him, the soldiers barely managing to scramble and leap out of its path. Giving up the chase, Burgess pulled a sharp turn upwards and soared high into the air. As he ascended, however, he noticed that by going up, he allowed all the tanks and guns to once again get a bead on his position.
“Tch.” he muttered, as the hail of bullets and explosives tore through the sky towards him before hurtling off through the sky, weaving through the air to try and avoid the projectiles. Diving down once more, he grabbed an entire building in his jaws and sent it flying through the air, smashing into one of the guns and crushing it entirely. With no time to waste he resumed his frantic evasion, periodically tossing a small building at the battlements; but there were simply too many barrels aiming at him. One blast tore off the tip of his fin, and as he flinched in pain, the rest soon followed.
“BURGESS!” Abigail cried as she saw the storm of projectiles smash into him, exploding in a great cloud. His armored body finally compromised for once, he collapsed out of the sky with a great moan, slamming into the buildings below and causing a shitton more property damage. Somewhat fortuitously, his head didn't land too far from the pair. “C'mon, this is our chance!” she urged Collin before wedging herself through a pair of buildings and popping out on the street his head had landed on. His unblinking eyes were still a dark red.
“Burgess! C'mon, man, are you okay?” she shouted, grabbing and shaking one of his mandibles. He shifted slightly.
“Urgh. Abigail? Ah, so you're still here. You should get back to the realm. This is no place for the likes of you.” Burgess grunted forcefully. Collin soon came into sight alongside Abigail.
“Shut up, man, shut up. You've gotta calm down. Rampaging like this won't help anything, it'll just make everything worse for the both of us.” Abigail's words came out quickly as she tried to convince the giant crustacean.
“And who told you that? Perhaps it was that non-embodiment next to you?” Burgess growled. Collin started.
“Wait, who, me? No, no, though, uh, I do kinda think the same thing....” Collin hastily said, shaking his hands, before being cut off by Burgess rolling back onto his stomach.
“He's a liar. He's full of deceit, like everyone else in this blasted place!” he roared, jabbing outwards with his mandibles towards Collin before they were intercepted by Abigail's fist.
“What are you doing, you fool? He'll just deceive and backstab you!” he warned gravely. A surge of guilt stabbed through Collin's heart, remembering how he'd mistakenly led the government towards the realm once before. What if they took him in after this and grilled him more? Would he be able to stand up to them?
“SHUT. THE HELL. UP!”
Smashing Burgess's mandibles aside, she ran forward and slammed a fist into one of Burgess's eyes, causing him to recoil in agony and rear up before crashing back to the ground. Stomping forward, she looked him straight in one of his beady, unblinking eyes.
“Look, I don't know how long you've been alive, and I don't know how much you know. But I know that you don't know anything about my buddy here, and that what you're doing is just making everything worse. Even if you manage to smash all those guns, then what? These people will just want to kill you even more.” Her voice softened, and she sounded less angry at him. “I know you're angry, and that Argon guy really is a scumbag, but PLEASE, we've just got to get out of here.”
There was a long pause. Then, the red slowly faded from Burgess's eyes, and they returned to their normal beady black state.
“Oh my....I'm terribly sorry, Abigail. I've done a terrible thing....” he moaned in mild horror. Abigail sighed in relief, and Collin stopped hiding in an alleyway and slowly crept out to join her again.
“Don't worry about that now. I'm glad you're back to your old self. Now come on, let's get the fuck out of here. Do you think you can get away from those guns?” Abigail asked, glancing over he shoulder towards the searching cannons above.
Burgess looked upwards, then back down to Abigail and Collin. “Mmmm....the wind seems favorable. I most likely will be able to get out of range before they can cause any significant damage.” He muttered thoughtfully.
“....so yes, basically?” Abigail asked impatiently.
“Yes....more or less. Come on, climb on my back. Try to hold on tightly, I'm not entirely good at giving rides or suited towards being ridden,” he warned wisely as Abigail eagerly clambered on before helping pull up a tentative Collin. Steadily moving his multitudinous fins, he managed to turn himself around to face the edge of the city. Noticing the movement, the cannons locked on to his position.
“Here we go!” He warned sternly.
With a great flapping noise, he dashed forward and rose swiftly off the ground, barely clearing another row of buildings as the cannons thundered behind him.
Meanwhile, in a command room deep within the headquarters, personnel rushed back and forth, frantically keying commands into computers and generally doing important-looking bullshit, or at least trying to appear that they were.
“Sir, we have a change in the situation. The subject is no longer attacking; in fact, it looks like he's trying to escape.” One of the green-clad soldiers nervously stuttered, standing before the chair overseeing the room. In classic supervillain style, it whirled around, revealing the commander within.
Argon was a stout chubby man, far shorter and less imposing than Carter, who was somehow crammed into a black and grey uniform dotted with medals. He also lacked the all-important authoritative mustache. What he did have, however, was a wrinkled, knowledgeable face, squinty eyes, and eyebrows thick and long enough to make the gods weep. A single skeptical raise of his eyebrow could galvanize a thousand men into action, launch a hundred ships, and silence a class of middle-schoolers.
“You can't be serious. He was rampaging unstoppably before, but now he's decided to flee? Has he seen the full brunt of our military might, and is trying to report it back to his leaders? Hm,” he grumbled, furrowing his brow in thought. “Bring up the visuals.”
A large screen in the front of the room blipped to life, providing a soundless video of Burgess soaring through the sky, not at all far from escaping the city's limits. Argon propped up his chin on his folded hands, scrutinizing the footage thoroughly.
“He seems to be outside of our firing radius now, sir.” the officer added.
“Hm. He seems to be much more calm than before, no fancy manuevers....wait, what's that on top of him? Zoom in, you fools!” he commanded, furrowing his eyebrows. No sooner than had he commanded it than it was done, as the camera zoomed in, revealing Abigail and Collin on his back; Abigail cheering with both her arms in the air, while Collin clung to Burgess as best he could with his arms and legs while periodically trying to brush Abigail's ridiculously long hair out of his face.
“Isn't that the uniform of one of Carter's men?” he asked. “Is he plotting something? This requires more investigation.....don't you think so, Carter?” he said, turning to face the entrance as it opened, revealing two bruised guards and.....nobody else.
“....dammit, I thought you'd captured him!” Argon shouted, slamming his fists onto the armrests of his chair. One of the guards slumped to the ground and the other started shuddering.
“We couldn't stop him, man.....we thought we had him, but suddenly....that mustache.......” he stuttered nervously, clutching at his bruised face. On closer inspection, he saw that a lot of the guard's face was rubbed raw.
“DAMMIT, what do I pay you for?” Argon growled, turning in his seat to face the screen again, which no longer had Burgess on it. “He escaped, didn't he.”
“Affirmative, sir.”
“Well, that's fine. Something interesting has arisen that may be key to this whole mess.”
-------------------------------
“Well, I'm glad that's over.” Burgess sighed as the three soared lazily over the open plains outside the city. “They won't be able to get us here, you said?”
“The city's defenses are mostly focused on driving people out, so they don't have much range outside the city limits. We should be totally safe by now.” Collin piped up.
“I see......” Burgess said, his voice a thoughtful whisper. A silence fell over the group as Abigail furtively looked back and forth between the two.
“C'mon, what the hell's wrong with you guys? We're out, aren't we?” Abigail said, irritable that they were ruining her good mood.
“Well yeah, but....I'm pretty sure I can't go back home anymore. I mean, since I did all that...um....breakout stuff and inadvertantly caused the deaths of about a dozen guards......” Collin said sadly, looking down meekly.
“Oh yeah. That shit was totally awesome by the way. I totally wouldn't have thought you'd actually come back for me.” Abigail said lightly with a smile, clearly not understanding the implications. After another awkward pause full of Collin's sadface, she added “Okay, fine, sorry. You can stay at my place again for a while. I'm sure shit'll calm down after while, right?”
“Well, probably not, but.... thanks....” Collin said shyly.
“That's not the only problem here, though.” Burgess added worriedly. “What will Blank do when she hears about this?”
That actually worried Abigail.
“Um, we could just lie to her, right?” she said meekly.
“You fool, she can read my mind. She uses me to figure out what all's going on, have you forgotten?” he sighed worriedly. “I guess I'll try to talk to her and reason with her, but I'm not sure how well it will go.”
“Well, what'll she do if it goes badly?” Abigail asked.
A silence filled the air.
“Well.....there's the possibility she may declare war.” Burgess declared gravely.
“What?!” Collin wailed, snapping out of his funk.
“If she thinks your home is a threat to us, and the chance of them striking again is high enough, she may decide to just eliminate the problem of our proximity to them. So she may move our realm, or reduce your city to a burning heap of rubble. Depending on her mood.” Burgess said. “And I think the chances of them striking back are reasonably high, considering that commander's intentions and my, um....” he sounded extremely embarrassed.
“Yeah, uh, that. That....may be a problem.” Abigail agreed bluntly. “Well, look, we're not gonna get anything done by just moaning and groaning. We'll just have to see how things go.” Abigail said, kicking back and folding her arms behind her head.
“I wish I could be as relaxed as you.” Collin sighed. “And also not about to die.”
BLANK'S OUTRAGE GOES HERE
“Dammit.” Abigail grunted, eying the shittily made letter she'd received that morning. Her house was totally empty apart from her; even her sister Cassandra had been swept up and taken in by the preparations for the war against the outside world, even though she never really wanted to fight. She alone was trying to resist the tide of oncoming battle, a rarity for her. However, she wasn't really sure how she was going to go about resisting this. All of the people participating included her friends, or at least people she knew, and despite how much she loved fighting with them, this was different. It wouldn't just be a friendly match, she would have to outright incapacitate them to prevent them from participating, and she simply didn't feel up to breaking the limbs of all her friends and neighbors.
And now it turned out Collin had supposedly been kidnapped. She had wondered where he had been off to the past few days, but she just assumed he was doing his nerdy things, like having existential crises and fits of manic sobbing like usual. Just now, though, she had received a barely-legible letter telling her that her “nerdy friend” was “in our hands now” and that she had to go to the dark part of the forest if she wanted to see him again.
“Well,” she grunted to herself. “Guess it's my turn to bail his ass out.”
Gazing upwards as she left her house, she noticed that the sky seemed a lot dimmer than usual; it seemed as though it had been darkening the past few days, an obvious, foreboding sign of what was soon to come. Staring off into the distance towards the forest, she began her trot towards where she would hopefully find her one remaining compatriot.
A few minutes later....
“Well, this certainly LOOKS like the dark part of the forest.” Abigail muttered to herself, taking in her surroundings. She'd come to another small clearing in the forest. The sky was completely overshadowed by the trees; even if the sky had been clear and sunny, it's doubtful any of the sunlight would have managed to filter through. There was just enough light present, however, for there to be shadows cast everywhere; shadows of the trees, bushes, and fallen logs all somehow converged towards the center of the clearing. The yellow light cast by her illuminated lure gave the clearing an eerie feeling.
Plopping down on one of the logs, Abigail pondered. Why didn't the letter ask any demands or ransom? Maybe they're just a bunch of dicks and wanted to mess with her. Or maybe it was a trap.
“Yeah, in hindsight, this really seems like a trap,” She thought to herself.
Not having any idea what else to do or how to un-trap herself, however, she continued to wait.
“So you came....” a voice hissed ominously from the darkness.
Suddenly, an arm shot out from the shadows, grabbing her around the throat and cutting off her breathing. Frightened, she slowly tried to turn her head and see her assailant. All she could make out was a pair of glowing malevolent yellow eyes.
“Such a silly girl, coming all the way out here....” the menacing voice chuckled. “You really should have been more careful.”
Desperately, she grabbed at the arm wrapped around her neck.
It came off with surprising ease. In fact, it didn't seem to actually be attached to anything. Now more confused than anything else, she held it up to her illuminated lure, casting light on it to get a better look.
Whatever it was, it didn't belong to a human, or even a humanoid. It was made of red stuffed cloth, giving it a firm yet plushy feeling, and was simply a somewhat ovular shape instead of looking like an actual arm. On the thicker end of the thing, three metal, clawed fingers (one of which was a thumb) emerged to form a sort of hand, and on the top was a blue crystal emerging from it. A network of stitches appeared to hold it together.
Suddenly, it jerked back to life and started trying to grab at her throat once more, its metal claws clicking vigorously. Jerking it away from her face, she held it awkwardly before tossing it away into the center of the clearing, now thoroughly unnerved. It spasmed about a bit; but soon its spasming slowed and stopped, and, in an eerie fasion, it slowly began to float, rising up to her eye level before dashing towards her again with alarming speed, its metal claws making a whistling as it hurtled through the air towards her.
Abigail, no longer fazed by this, however, planted her feet firmly into the ground and, moments before the impact, she thrust her fist forward and smashed it out of the air. Flying backwards, the claw landed in the shadows on the opposite side of the clearing and ceased moving. A silence filled the air.
Then, with an odd noise, the claw simply sank into the shadow and disappeared as Abigail watched with confusion. Soon, the shadow began to rise; a large lump of pure darkness forming from it. Then, it dissolved back into the shadow and disappeared, leaving behind something entirely different.
Its body was a slightly egg-shaped ovular lump apparently also made from fabric; a patchwork of different colors and patterns covered its body, sewn on in a fashion that slightly resembled a vest, with a valentine heart sewn onto its chest where its heart would be if it was human. The uncovered lower half of its body was a sickly green. A large vertical slit ran down its belly, and at the bottom of its body were a pair of incredibly small, stump-like legs. A plush arm floated on either side of its body, not connected to the body in any obvious way. Finally, on top of its stumpy, egg-shaped body was its head; a jack-o-lantern with a jagged mouth, a triangular “nose” and two round eyes, one tiny, the other huge. Yellow light shone from its nose and eye holes, and in the larger eye, a black spiral was constantly turning.
“Well, well. You're not bad, eh?” it chuckled; though its voice was much less deep and menacing than the one that spoke earlier, it was identifiable as the same one. The voice was smooth and sinister, with a hint of malicious mischief. His jagged mouth was turned upwards in a sinister smile, and he cupped his chin thoughtfully. “You're certainly a fighty one. Though, for me, there's nobody too tough to handle,” he continued smugly. Abigail frowned at him blankly, her brow furrowed in thought.
“Who the hell are you, again?” she asked, clearly confused. He sputtered in disbelief, his smug aura broken.
“SAMHAIN! I'm the embodiment of fear, for cryin' out loud! You tellin' me you've never heard of me?!” he shouted, obviously upset. Abigail stared at him blankly, thought for a few seconds, and shook her head.
“Of all the disrespectful.....” He grumbled to himself, his arms crossed. “Well, fine. By the time we're through, you'll wish you'd never met me.” He uncrossed his arms and got into a stance that clearly said “let's throw down”.
“So, what about Collin?” She asked, reclining on a log and examining her nails solely to show how little she respected him. “If you just wanted to fight me, you could have just said so instead of lying about having him hostage.”
An odd look came over Samhain's face. After a few seconds of thought, he said “Oh yeah, that wimp. Yeah, I got him hostage at my house.”
She looked up at him briefly, then started picking her nose (again, solely for the disrespect factor.)“What for?” she asked.
“Eh?” Samhain replied blankly.
“You said you have him hostage, and you called me here. So what the hell do you want from me in return for Collin? Quit wasting my damn time.” She asked, clearly becoming irritable.
Samhain ground his teeth. This was not at all going how it should. Instead of tearing her a new one, she was lounging about interrogating him. Worst of all, she was not even remotely frightened or respectful towards him. If there's one thing the jackass jack-o-lantern desired most, it was to be feared and/or respected.
“I...uh....I want your SOOOOOOUL!” Samhain roared, striking a menacing pose that leaned him in close over Abigail.
Abigail glared at him, then reached up and grabbed him by his plushy chest. His scaryface quickly turned into a scaredface.
“Okay, look, asshole. I don't have time for your bullshit. You either have no idea what you're doing, or someone else is pulling the strings here. Either way, you'd better cough up some info NOW.” Abigail growled at him. Somewhere in Samhain's bizarre mind, something clicked.
“Fine, fine. I'll take you to who's in charge. I was just told to hassle you, I don't really know the details.....” he said meekly. This was almost kind of not a lie.
Abigail grunted and released him.
“SUCKERRRRRR!” he taunted, instantly dashing off into the forest with surprising speed given how tiny his legs were.
“GET BACK HERE YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” Abigail roared angrily as she tore off after him.
As Abigail chased after him, the path in the woods got steadily darker and spookier. It seemed as though every branch was a grasping arm, a trunk a menacing face. Unfazed, she continued on, the branches whipping past her face. Eventually, she began swearing she saw odd visions; a wolfman dashing through the trees, bats swarming overhead, the calls of crows. Though slightly unnerved, she continued the chase.
Soon, she burst from the path through a set of bushes and into another, much larger clearing. Unlike the last one, this one hardly seemed natural. There was no grass, fallen logs or leaves, or even any form of a tree canopy; the starry night sky could clearly be seen overhead.
What the clearing did contain, however, was stones. Encircling the clearing was a set of enormous stone monuments, eight in total. Somehow they looked natural, yet unnatural at the same time; each towered at least nine feet into the air, and were mostly smooth pillars that tapered away towards the top. At the top of each, however, was an odd shape; four were topped with ring shapes with four small spikes within and had a small barb jutting out the side of each pillar, and the other four had an odd, spiky shape with four prongs that vaguely resembled a fork, albeit one that was carved by a hobo who had never seen a fork before. These shapes were obviously not natural; each shape was perfectly identical to the others in its set. The monuments were set in an alternating pattern of these two shapes.
Abigail scrutinized the statues carefully. Though she wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, it didn't take a psychic to figure out something was really odd here. Furthermore, there was no sign of Samhain, despite him having clearly taken the same route as her.
No sooner than had she carefully tread into the center of the circle than did Samhain's laughter fill the air. Popping out of the shadows of one of the monuments, he pointed at her and cackled.
“HaHA! You fell for it! You're even dumber than you look!” he cackled raucously, as Abigail stared at him blankly.
“...Fell for what?” she asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. He stopped laughing and simply grinned.
“Ohohoho. You're about to find out reeeeeaaaal soon.....” he said ominously. “Hope you have fun with the embodiments of evil!” With that, he plunged back into the shadows and disappeared.
For a few moments, nothing happened. An eerie breeze drifted through the area.
A slow groaning resounded from behind Abigail, sending a chill up her spine. Whirling around, she saw nothing at first. Then the groan sounded again, and she looked down.
The shadow of one of the ringed pillars was moving, not from a trick of the light, but completely on its own; its long shape bent and twisted, the pillar itself remaining perfectly still. Soon, the spiked ring contorted and bulged before the top snapped open entirely and took the shape of a monstrous set of jaws, the spikes turning into short fangs. It wasn't alone, either; one of the spiked fork-like ones also began to move, violently shuddering and turning into the shape of a clawed hand. Soon, all of the shadows began contorting and moving, transforming into dark sets of jaws and claws, each of them reaching towards her. Soon, some of them began peeling off the ground entirely, rearing up on their long bodies and letting forth unearthly groans and howls into the black night, before leaning over as if to scrutinize her with their eyeless faces, all eight towering ominously over her head in a circular pattern.
Abigail darted her eyes back and forth warily. This situation was new to her, and almost certainly not one that would fit any definition of “good”. Abigail went ahead and decided that if they don't produce cake for her in a few moments, she'll just go ahead and assume that they're nasty things and start kicking them apart.
Sure enough, they didn't produce cake, but they apparently thought she might taste as good as one. One of the shadow jaws lunged forward to snap at her as Abigail leaped backwards out of its reach. Before she could even draw her next breath, one of the hands shot out from behind and slashed downwards at her, its claws piercing into the ground a split second away from hitting her as she dashed off to the side and was immediately greeted by a set of jaws launching upwards at her from the ground, slamming shut futilely into the sky as she swiftly stepped back. Seeing a brief opening, she drew back her fist and thrust it fiercely at the shadow with a fierce “HA!”
As you probably foresaw, her arm simply slid through the shadow's body. Pulling it back out quickly, the hole she produced in it almost immediately closed up, leaving no sign of damage. As the shadow's long body bent over, the jaws leaning over her head, she uttered a low “Well, SHIT,” before four of the other shadows surged forward at her, Abigail leaping straight up several feet into the air to avoid it. With nothing but the thought “GOTTA GET OUT GOTTA GET OUT GOTTA GET OUT” surging through her brain, Abigail slammed back down onto the barren soil in a full tilt dash towards a gap between two of the stones.
Moments away from freedom, however, a wall of pure, black darkness rose from the ground before her, her eyes bulging open in annoyed shock. Braking as best she could, she skidded to a stop to avoid collision, but accidentally leaned forward and brushed one hand against it. Immediately, a jolt of extreme pain tore through her hand. Her face contorted in agony.
“GAH!”
Grimacing and squinting harshly, she pulled it up to her face to examine it, see what had happened. Surprisingly, there were no signs of damage, or even any indicators that it had been hurt at all. Gazing skeptically at her hand, the barrier, and the towering shadowy monsters advancing on her, Abigail began to panic, and subsequently, to monologue to herself.
“Okay. So, Abigail you've gotten yourself into some majorly deep shit.” she thought to herself as she darted between the shadows crashing into the ground around her, only for them to flatten themselves back onto the ground and continue their pursuit, wriggling and spurting forward like spastic, far-too-agile snakes.
“So there's eight of these unpunchable shadowy bastards who're coordinating together to rip and tear my guts, and I can't seem to get out between the stones. That's pretty shit.” ran through her head rapidly whilst she kicked off one of the stone monuments, soaring over the shadows as they rocketed up off the ground, snapping and grasping a second too late to get her.
“Maybe there's something else I'm missing? Something I should try? Maybe I should OH FUCK BALLS” Abigail's brain went as two sets of hands shot up in front of her. Unable to change her trajectory, she wound up getting snatched out of the sky. Caught tight in the shadowy hand's grasp, Abigail began to groan in pain as it squeezed tight and tighter, its massive, clawed fingers digging in deeply as the other seven shadows began to converge around her.
In the woods just outside the clearing, Samhain watched from behind one of the trees, a look of glee painted all over his face.
“So, Samhain, have you succeeded?” an ominous female voice rang through his head. His gleeful snicker immediately subsided into an expression of subservience as he turned from the scene, facing the interior of the forest.
“Well, yeah. I led her to the Hatestones. They're squeezin' the life outta her as we speak!” he said merrily.
“But she's not yet dead, is she?” the voice asked, its emotionless tone unchanged.
“Er...uh, no, not yet. But she will be soon!” he said, eagerly trying to please. He then coughed into his hand. “So, about that reward.....”
The voice resounded again. “I only deal in absolutes, Samhain. You will not be rewarded until it is completely certain that she's been removed from this scenario. 'Will be dead soon' is not 'dead'. There is always a chance she may escape.” Samhain pouted unhappily in response.
“Aw, c'mon. You and I both know those things're invincible.” he said skeptically.
“Would you defy my will?” the voice asked gravely. Samhain suddenly shuddered in intimidation.
“N....no, no, I totally wouldn't.” he said, smiling weakly.
“Good. Remain there and watch the situation. And if she collapses, MAKE SURE THAT SHE IS DEAD.” With that, the voice faded away. Nervously, he peered back around the tree.
“Stupid windbag. That broad Abigail's totally done for. I mean, look at her, she's hardly even strugglin' anymore.” he muttered to nobody in particular.
And indeed, things were looking bleak for Abigail. Her vision was fading and she was unable to take a breath due to the massive fingers crushing into her lungs. She could hardly even mutter swears anymore. The horde of shadows gathered round and watched hungrily, waiting for her to finally give up the ghost. And if she did....god, that would be messy.
“Dammit....I can't....just let it end like this.....” she whispered, her voice growing faint. Visions of everyone began flashing through her head....were they memories? Daydreams?
She reminisced of the time spent with her sister; sparring, laughing, drinking, teaming up....damn, how the hell DOES she keep lasers in that jar?
The times spent dueling with Namu. God damn is that guy's skull thick. She always wanted to put a fracture or two in it. Not so badly it'd give him lasting injuries though.....
Oh, Lorenzo. You're such a goddamn spaz. You're a pretty rad neighbor though. Thanks for all the free food.
Grimoire....were you actually evil at all, or just mildly creepy and misunderstood? Maybe I should've tried to put you through training. That'd be....interesting.
Thoughts of this nature coursed through her brain as she felt like she was on her last legs.
But the thoughts came together into a unifying theme, and as it came into her head, she felt something stirring within her.
Everyone in this land; every giant sea animal, every person, every weird abstract thing that lived here meant something to her. Those are the very things that make her home what it is. And if all of them go to war, chances are high that nearly all of them could vanish forever. Some may die, some may be traumatized, and some may have their personalities changed forever. No matter which way the battle goes, this place would never be the same ever again
She couldn't let that happen.
She didn't want to die; no, she COULDN'T die. Not for her sake, but for all of theirs.
She felt that stirring once more, growing stronger; a warmth, no, a fire growing in her soul. With no more actual energy, all she had left was her spirit, and that was something that nobody would ever snuff out.
As Abigail felt herself truly getting fired up, six beams of light suddenly seared through the hand grasping her. Hissing an unearthly wail, the hand released its grasp, causing her to plummet to the ground. Breathing in deeply, Abigail prepared herself.
God damn, the night air tasted good.
Flipping mid-fall, she slammed to the ground on both feet, rearing back up and glaring back around at the shadows. The luminescent spots on her body and her lure shone more brightly than ever before. Hesitantly, the shadows hissed and observed her as the one that got blown apart quickly reformed; globs of darkness manifested from nowhere and stuck onto the flailing stump that once ended in a hand, before clumping together and sprouting back into the shape of a new hand. With a fearsome, hissing roar, the shadows once more shot forward and began to converge on her.
A thought shot through her brain in the space of a split-second and Abigail whipped her head around, lashing her lure forward like a whip. It struck one of the shadows with meteoric impact, blowing a massive hole through its body. A screaming hiss tore through the night air.
“Wh-what the hell?!” Samhain gasped. “How can a little light stop somethin' like that?!”
The thought hadn't really occurred to Abigail; she was too caught up in the moment. Neither of them really understood it, but it wasn't just light Abigail was exuding; it was her pure, unfiltered righteous spirit. Roaring a battle cry, she crouched down and in the blink of an eye, tore off across the clearing like a brilliantly shining comet, the light leaving a trail behind her.
“Wait...she ain't thinkin' of...” Samhain squinted, trying to make out what she was doing.
As it turned out, she was thinking exactly what Samhain was thinking that she was thinking, but she was not just thinking, she was doing. Namely, she was zooming straight towards one of the gaps in the stones, the shadows trying to close in behind her, claws grasping and jaws snapping. Once more, the black barrier arose from the ground, looming in front of her like a great wall. But instead of trying to stop, she sped up, soon becoming a gleaming, roaring, blur, a distinct “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” resounding through the air.
Soon, a massive blasting sound tore through the air, causing Samhain to wince and turn away. When he looked back, his non-existent eyeballs nearly bugged out of their non-existent sockets.
Abigail had broken through, leaving a massive hole in the black wall. Soon, it wobbled, then suddenly seemed to liquify, collapsing back into the earth and dissipating. The shadowy monsters, their quarry apparently now out of range or not worth pursuing anymore, slid back into the ground and resumed the shape of the stone monuments.
Abigail quickly broke her nifty pose and collapsed onto her bum, her luminescent bits dimming. “Man. I'm really frickin' tired....” she mumbled weakly; evidently, the adrenaline and fighting spirit had worn off, leaving her utterly physically and mentally exhausted. Leaning forward onto her arms, she slowly began to lift herself off the ground and stagger back through the forest. “Wonder where Collin is....” she mumbled halfheartedly, obviously unable to form complex thoughts at the moment.
Samhain, once more peering out from behind a tree, observed carefully. A wicked smile curved across his face, his metal claws gleaming in the moonlight. Plunging into the shadows of the forest, he began his stealthy approach, intending to finish her off while she was severely weakened.
Abigail, a sleepy, half-dead expression on her face, was wandering weakly back in the direction she thought would get her home. She tried to remember what her priorities were before getting caught up in all this mess, but could barely manage to form a coherent thought. Scratching her head, she decided it probably wasn't anything that couldn't be solved after getting some sleep.
Suddenly, she felt something sharp and cold jab into her throat. Turning her head lazily, she saw Samhain standing behind her, his claws jabbed into her neck. His once evil grin quickly shifted into a wide-eyed nervous one.
“Erm...damn, I guess I forgot to sharpen my claws this week. Silly me! Guess I'll just leave for today and come back another time, eh? Eh?” he spoke rapidly, his once cocky voice now sounding extremely pathetic.
Abigail gave him a hard gaze, then grabbed him by the stem of his pumpkin head and lifted him off the ground as he winced in pain and began flailing his stubby limbs.
“OW! OW! Hey, hey, NO STEM GRABBING! That ain't cool, man!” he wailed.
“God damn, you really are pathetic, aren't you?” Abigail grunted disdainfully. “Now, look, I'm only going to ask your sorry ass once. Where's Collin, and what the hell do you actually want me dead for in the first place?”
“OW! Ugh, hey, listen, lady, it ain't nothin' personal. I was just offered a nice little reward by Blank if I could get you outta the picture and keep you from interferin' with her war preparations. She had a feeling you might do something crazy and fuck everythin' up. And seein' how dense and violent you are, I'd say she was about right on that mark.” He was met with a swift punch to the face, causing him to clutch it and wail a bit more as he dangled from Abigail's grip.
“Shut up, tool, I didn't ask for your opinion. Where the hell do you have Collin, anyway?” she asked, sounding more mildly annoyed and tired than anything else. Samhain slowly began to chuckle.
“That's the best part. I don't!” he cackled nastily. Abigail gave him a confused gaze.
“That dumb kid left on his own like two days ago! Hell, even if he hadn't, Blank would've probably vaporized his sorry ass!” he sneered viciously.
Abigail's expression changed from irritated, to blank, to sad, before finally settling on something completely unreadable, which was a surprisingly effective indicator of what was going through her head. She truly had no idea how to feel about this. Should she feel sad? Angry? Hungry? Why did he leave? Weren't things too dangerous for him?
Suddenly, she realized that she should probably be concerned. That's probably what he would if she had inexplicably wandered off and had a high probability of getting killed, anyway. What a weirdo. Either way, though, she had to get out of this forest.
“Well, fine. If you actually don't have him, then I guess I have no reason to deal with you anymore.” she grunted, releasing his stem and causing him to plop to the ground. Samhain released a sigh of relief, but was soon cut off by Abigail leaning over and shoving her face right into his, an irritated glare furrowing her brow.
“Of course, by the same token, I now have no reason to let you live.” she said threateningly, her voice low. Sweatdrops instantly broke out all over Samhain's head, which kind of makes no sense since his body had no components that could possibly produce sweat, but it did a good job of showing that he was nervous. “So get the hell out of here before I dismember your sorry ass.”
“B-but....” Samhain stuttered while gesturing towards his detached, floating arms, more out of confusion than out of fear.
“I'll detach them from your body EVEN MORE somehow.” Abigail said, unfazed the way only someone who is not thinking at all can be. Samhain was even more confused but decided not to question her, figuring that she'd somehow break the laws of reality, and quickly rose to his stubby legs and scuttled back off into the depths of the forest.
Abigail watched him disappear into the shadows of the trees. Standing motionless for a while, she eventually turned around and continued on the path back to her house.
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