Antisepticeye
Here we finally are, the origin of Antisepticeye. This one is more bloody than the other stories, so be warned.
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He sat on the edge of the room, watching the younger children run through the town. He smiled a small smile before his eyes caught sight of his target. A wealthy-looking man was pointing at a shopkeeper, apparently yelling. The shopkeeper backed up and shook his head vigorously, but the man persisted.
He frowned. This man had no purpose to be in his town. He should leave. Before he gets ahold of him. He grinned, his teeth flashing in the sunlight. He hopped down the side of the building into an alleyway where he watched the wealthy man. At this point, he had shoved the shopkeeper aside and huffed away, grumbling to himself.
“An-”
“Shh!” He shushed a child who had tried to sneak up on him. The child covered her mouth and glanced around him.
“Are you hunting again, Anti?” She whispered. He nodded and grinned down at her. She looked down at the knife in his hand and shivered.
Anti tapped his fingers against his leg, keeping rhythm with the man’s footsteps.
Tap tap tap tap tap ta-
Anti dashed forward, grabbing the man and quickly darting into the adjacent alleyway. There was a yell from the main road as his bodyguards noticed the sudden disappearance of their boss. Quickly, Anti shoved the man against the wall and put his knife to his throat.
“Wallet. Now.” He growled. The man’s terror slipped away partially, replaced with surprise.
“You’ve got a mighty strong grip for a wee lad.” Anti glared at him, pressing the knife closer. The man’s breath hitched in his throat but he kept smiling, not moving his hands to grab his wallet. There was shuffling nearby for a short moment before someone stood at the end of the alley.
“Drop the knife!” The man yelled. “Or I’ll shoot!”
Anti whipped the man around to stand between him and the bodyguard, knife still at his throat. He slowly walked him forward until both of them were out of the alley. There Anti could see all of the bodyguards. Two on his right, one on his left.
“I will let him go. After you answer my questions.” Anti frowned. “One, Why are you in my town?”
The man on his left spoke up. “It was the quickest shortcut to the main city.”
“Why were you in such a hurry?”
“The mayor invited him personally to celebrate the occasion.”
“Occasion? What occasion? That pathetic statue that you bastards made to show how rich you are? Why don’t you send all that money somewhere that actually needs it?” Anti growled.
The man in his grasp chuckled. “And what? Give it to you folks? All you ever do is beg and beg. You never do anything helpful.”
Anti pulled the knife closer and barely cut the man’s throat. A guard yelled a warning.
There was a small yelp from the adjacent alleyway and Anti’s eyes snapped to it to see a fourth guard walk out smugly, pulling the girl from before out with him. He planted his pistol to the side of her head and she went still, eyes wide. “Shut it pipsqueak.” He looked at Anti. “Let him go or I shoot her.”
Anti could feel his anger and frustration welling up inside of him. This wasn’t supposed to last this long, and she wasn’t supposed to be involved. He slowly removed the knife from the man’s throat. As the man made his way to the bodyguards on the right, Anti rushed over to the one with the girl. With one swift move, he flicked the gun away with his knife. The man gasped as the knife nicked three of his fingers, cutting one clean off.
“Anti-” The girl yelped as a loud bang sounded behind him. Anti’s head whipped around to see the wealthy man pointing a small gun at him. He looked at him confused for a moment before a small thud sounded to his side. He looked back to see the girl lying in the dirt, eyes blank. A small portion of his neck stung from where the bullet grazed him. The man had missed- he killed- Sa-
“YOU KILLED HER!” Anti yelled, spinning around. He plunged his knife directly into the closest guard’s cheat before running straight to the man who shot her. He almost made it there before another loud bang sounded and he stopped in his tracks. The knife was the first to fall, then his right leg. As he landed on his knee, he coughed, blood splattering on the dirt. He looked down at his chest and saw dark red spreading down his shirt.
“Y-you bast-” Anti coughed up more blood and fell the rest of the way to the ground. The world faded to black as red seeped into the dirt.
No… Sam… I won’t leave her-
Anti caught a glimpse of green on the edge of his vision and suddenly his whole body felt… different. The pain in his neck was still there, but it didn’t… he could breathe. He clenched his hand.
“No…” He said faintly. The steps he didn’t notice before stopped walking away. He pulled his arm back and tried pushing himself up. As he strained his muscles, the strange feeling was there again. Some of his hair, previously in a ponytail, fell in front of his eyes. It’s... green? He pushed his loose hair aside and stood up, grabbing his knife on the way up. He looked down at where he laid, where a puddle of blood was. Wait- He brought his hand up to his neck, catching a glimpse of his reflection in his knife.
“Are you serious?” He looked up at the remaining men, who were looking at him with terror in their eyes. “You shot me in the neck?” He poked at the bullet hole and walked over to a nearby window. He looked his wound over with a hum before bringing his knife up. He slipped the tip of his knife into the wound and pullet to the right. He heard a gasp from the men, who were still standing there in shock, and grinned as the knife cut his neck. He did the same to the left before cleaning the knife off on his pants and looking back at his reflection. He caught a glint of metal in the muscle and reached for it. The blood on his fingers was not a new sensation, but feeling his pulse beating through his muscle, the way they twitched as he adjusted his neck to get a better angle. After a few tries, he managed to grab the bullet between his fingers and pull it out. He looked at it for a bit before dropping it on the ground.
“You- You MONSTER!” He turned to look at the man who yelled. He grinned.
“I’m the monster?” He laughed, his voice cracking and shifting. The strange feeling was back. He looked at the bodyguard on the far right and in the blink of an eye, he stood in front of him. They were both caught off guard by the sudden change in position, but Anti recovered quicker, slashing the man’s neck with his knife in one quick motion. In the next few minutes, the other three men were also on the ground, throats slit.
“That was quick,” Anti said to himself. He looked down at his hands, which seemed to be buzzing with some sort of green energy. “I wonder…”
He looked up at the roof he had been on before and when he blinked he was looking over the edge at where he stood moments before. “Woah…. Nice!”
Anti’s smile quickly and excitement over new powers quickly faded when he saw Sam still laying in the dirt.
“You didn’t deserve that…” He clenched the knife in his hand and turned to face the city. “And I’ll make sure they pay.”
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A few years later, Anti stood in an abandoned parking structure, surrounded by what he assumed to be mafia. Most of them had their guns pointed at him. He laughed, pushing his green and newly red bags out of his face.
“Do you think you’ve caught me?” He readied himself and heard the guns click. “It’s time for the next phase.”
Anti shot to the first guy he saw, knife at the ready. He heard the gunfire but before anything hit him, he glitched behind the guy, plunging the knife into his back. As the man fell to the ground, the ones closest and across from him began firing. Anti flexed his fingers, cracking his knuckles before he pointed each hand at the two closest men. Red threads shot out of his hands, latching onto the men’s limbs and necks. Instantly, their eyes glazed over and they flopped like puppets.
“Puppets.” They shot to attention. “Kill them.” Anti watched as everyone opened fire excitedly, but it was only a few moments before his puppets fell to the ground. He frowned at the bloody and mangled bodies.
“Pathetic. They all die so easily.” He looked up at the men and just before they opened fire again, he was already running and glitching around them. He danced his horrid dance, slicing necks and dodging bullets, laughing the whole time. In a few minutes, Anti stood in the middle of a circle of corpses, his body buzzing with power.
H҉eh͢eh̨eheh͡e̶
The glitched laugh echoed through the parking structure before there was a sound. Anti was gone, off to see who his next victim would be. If anyone was still alive there, they would easily see that he was going mad with power. Nobody was safe anymore.
-- -- --
Lillian stretched, her back popping. She had just finished scrubbing the floor clean in the alteration shop where she lived and worked. She looked behind her as her master rounded the corner.
“Lillian! You need to organize the fabric scraps now!”
“Yes, Ma'am!” She dried her hands on her skirt before she rushed off to organize the many boxes of scraps. This is how she had lived, every day, for the 16 years of her life. She knew that she was being treated unfairly here, but she also knew that this was the only way she would get food and a place to sleep. She sighed quietly and began work as the bell in the front of the shop rang, signifying the arrival of a customer.
“Lillian! Greet the customer!” She placed the fabric down and quickly walked to the front of the shop.
“Welcome to Madam Ade-” She skidded to a stop when she saw the boy, not much older than she was, covered in blood. “Are-are you alright, sir?” The bell rang again as three more men walked in, staggering and stumbling. She gasped at the dead look in their eyes, and the murderous look in the boy’s eyes.
“Lillian! What is taking so long-!” Her master came around the corner and gasped. “LILLIAN GET AWAY-”
“Go.” Lillian barely processed as the three men ran past her, pushing her to the floor. There were screams of the other women who worked there, all silenced in a moment. There were shouts from the men next door and soon there were even more people in the small shop. Lillian ran up to one of the men she recognized but was pushed away as soon as she got close. “Don’t touch me, brat!” She hit one of the tables and belt something hit her arm. She looked down to see one of the sewing machines next to her, crushing her left hand and lower arm. As shock and pain filled her body and mind, she barely heard the yells and gunfire, or even the bodies falling to the floor around her. She only noticed when the boy from before kicked away a body in front of her. She looked up at him, tears spilling from her eyes. Something in the boy’s eyes seemed to change, recognition, shock, confusion, sorrow, then anger again. He knelt down next to her and pushed the sewing machine away.
“That’s bad.” Anti frowned at the girl’s broken arm. “What’s your name?” She looked at him, eyes growing darker before she fell forward. “Crap she passed out.” Anti huffed and stood up.
“Well, I guess that was kind of fun.” He walked to the door before pausing, memories of Sam flashing in his head, broken and cold. He looked back at the girl on the floor. “I’m not sure if I can save you, but maybe making you a puppet will let you live a little bit longer.”
He extended his hand and watched the red threads latch themselves onto the unconscious girl. In a flash, her previously black hair now glowed a light yellow. Anti stepped back in surprise.
“That’s never happened before.” He mumbled, twitching his fingers. “Get up.”
The girl stumbled up and looked at the floor, slowly blinking her glowing yellow eyes.
“Who are you?”
“Nobody…”
“What? Surely you must have a name.”
“...Lillian.”
“So you aren’t nobody.” Anti paused. “Come on, let’s see if we can get that arm fixed.”
“Yes, master.” Anti flinched. He could feel her resentment towards that title.
“Anti. Call me Anti.” The girl looked up at him, surprise in her eyes. He used removed the string from her right wrist and tied it tight around her left arm, just above the elbow. He took out his knife and carefully but swiftly cut her arm just above where the bones had been broken. Lillian gasped at the pain, but the soothing feeling of the strings on her helped her calm down.
“Why did you spare me?” Anti froze at those words.
“What?”
“Why do you care for me? I’ve never done anything for you.” Lillian said, voice monotone, but tears falling again.
“Not important.” Anti huffed, cleaning his knife. “Anyway, you’re a lot more chatty than any of my other puppets, and why is your hair doing that?” Lillian looked at her hair. “I’m not sure. Maybe… it’s because I want to help you.”
“Help… ME?” Anti laughed. “How in the world can you help me?”
“You’re lonely.” Anti froze, his smile fading. “Maybe I can help you. Oh! And if my hair is like this, it's like yours! Maybe I have powers too!”
Anti stood in silence, watching this strange girl talk. “...maybe. If that is the case, we need to figure out what yours is. I have a place where we can practice. Come with me.”
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