#lillaxtrigger

[lillaxtrigger]

Young Hope: Chapter 38

The open cloudless sky above begins to lose its orange shade as the twilight sun starts to sink down past the horizon and welcomes the stars and lunar glow of the full moon; their heavenly light gleaming upon the golden spire that towers past the sea of clouds. Along the edges of the golden warp gate are the three search nods that the angels had faced trail after trail to retrieve were tucked firmly within all three of their proper holes; the eyes and wings that make up their outer rims glancing around and flapping as they twirl in place. In the middle of the rings was a platform of glass sat in the middle of the golden top floor; Tore wondrously gazing to the rings as his cosmic mentor works on a holographic interface that protrudes out from the glass beneath their feet. When a distinct light shines down above them, the indigo angel aim’s his gaze skyward to behold the massive halo that hovers above the tower; the ring that hangs over them beginning to spin with a growing heavenly glow. The rings angelic glow slowly, but surely growing, Mall put away the holographic panel had been tinkering with and peers up to the halo above to state: “Good, the coordinates are finally set and the warp gate is pinpointing to my kind’s dimensional prison. It only be a matter of time now.” A warm smile permeates along his cheeks as he stares upwards, break his site away from the halo above and down to his blue ward before him; Tore gazing back to his cosmic mentor as Mall commends how: “I don’t think there is any way I can express my gratitude to you for aiding me in this long awaited noble endeavor. At long last, after millions of millennia, the Kybr shall return home. At long last, they shall be reunited with their own kin; and we have you to thank for it all, Tore. ... For the longest time, I only had the stars surrounding to call upon for comfort in my times of depression and isolation; to mend my sorrows with their gaseous light. Not once did I think that I would soon feel the warming welcome of another Kybr, another he could call his own kin to glide through the universe with. For that alone, I’m more than happy to have taken this journey with you.” “No prob, Mall. Bein on this whole adventure with ya made me realize what I’d been missing from my life; somebody I could really look up to help just guide me through all the stuff about life. Like a….you get what I’m saying?” “Hmm mm mm. Tore, I simply cannot wait to introduce you to the very people that you have stemmed from and behold in their majesty; to glide throughout the universe alongside our fellow kin. There’s just so much more of this reality I wish for you to view.” the cosmic angel describes, kneeling down to the blue boy’s level. “Honestly, it don’t matter to me a bit where ya wanna go; I just still wanna have ya around. There was seriously so much you taught me about myself that I didn’t even know I could do; stuff that I probably never would’ve realized my self if I didn’t go with ya. Really, if anyone’s to thank here, it’s you.” “Oh believe me, youngling; there’s still so much of yourself I can show you, so much of yourself that will surpass your human expectations. It’s my hope to one day cultivate you into a Kybr just as powerful as those in the days of yore; perhaps to even pass them. Before the cosmic Kybr could speak another word to his blue ward, the indigo angel reaches out for a warming embrace; Mall hugging the boy back in kind as Tore’s tear drip down from his face and stain his sparkling toga. “I can’t to show you all my friends and family. You’re gonna love em.”

Upon declaring this to his spacial teacher does a related thought pop into the blue boy’s mind, one that causes him to pull away from Mall’s grasp and stress how: “My fam! Oh god, its been around two weeks since I last talked to them! They must be worried outta their minds wondering where I’ve been this whole time. I know you said that using my phone might attract attention, but is it alright if I phone them up real quick and tell em I’m alright?” “Go ahead, Tore. Tell them...tell them of the wonderful news.” “Thanks Mall.” the indigo angel yips to his cosmic mentor as he strolls over towards the wayside and pulls his phone out from the depths of his pants pocket. After powering on his device, a wave of astonishment crashes upon him when first finding over dozens of notifications concerning calls that he had missed. Whoa! Holy crap! There’s seriously like 54 missed calls on here. Most of them from Mally too. Guess outta everyone, she’d be nearly on the cusp of exploding with worry. Better not keep her waiting any longer.

Without hesitation, the blue boy taps the last phone call his sister had attempted to reach through to him with; Tore putting his phone up to his ear as it starts to dial and waits as he hears the tone ring. Shortly after does he then hear the orange skater on the other end, yelping out to him: “Tore!?” “Hey, Mal. Sorry I didn’t really phone in for a while, had to turn my phone off cause I was helping-” “Oh my god, where are you!? What’s that guy you’re with doing!? Do you know what he’s about to do!?” “Whoa, easy there, Mal. Slow down a minute, w-what’s up with you?” the blue boy questions. “Tore, I need you to listen to me and answer; do you know what the Kybr were?” “Uh, Mall said they were powerful beings that could manipulate elements of the universe who shared their powers with humans and built cities to help teach em how to use em.” “Is that all he told you?” “Kind of, why? You figure out something?”

Above the very spire both the angels stand within, the tangible picture begins to come into focus within the golden halo; the outer rim of the ring surging with an otherworldly power as it starts to further twirl more rapidly. Tears begin to well underneath Mall’s very eyes as he peers deep within the transparent picture held inside the halo. Soon. Soon we shall be reunited. No more will this soul have to wander this lonely cosmo’s for eternity. We’ll be together. We’ll be home.

Among his mentor gazing up to the portal above them both, the indigo angel ventures back towards stargazing Kybr; a deep somber frown painted along his face as the light from the halo overheads casts their shadow over the blue boy’s eyes. “Mall…” Upon hearing his wards slightly meek call, Mall breaks his teary eyes away from the forming portal above and hears the boy before him request that: “Can I ask you some stuff...before Kybr come?” “Of course, Tore What do wish to know?” “Were there really no limits to what the Kybr could control in this universe?” “Indeed, there were none. The very forces of this universe were at our beck and call.” “Is that why the gods banished all of you?” “Sadly so. They couldn’t accept the control we had on what they claimed to be their dominion. But why ask of this?” The blue boy standing before the cosmic angel takes a moment to calm his shaking breath before he questions further on the matter with: “Was that the only reason?” “Pardon?” “What did Kybr do to warrant getting imprisoned?” “Tore. Let us not worry about such mysteries, not with our reunion so close.” the spacial angel attempts to thwart with.

“Mall...were the Kybr bad?” Such a question piercing the air causes every single hair along the cosmic angel to stand on end, Mall attempting to veer away from answer by uttering: “Tore, lets just drop the-” “Did they hurt people?” The blue boy’s burning hunger for these answers drive the cosmic angel to a dreading silence; one that only fuels his ward to push further. “Mall...Mall, what did they do? How many others wanted them gone? Why were they so hated?” Despite Tore’s constant push for tangible answers, this only drives further silence from the starry angel standing before him; his mentor’s refusal to answer drawing out only frustration and tears as he continues to shout: “Mall...Please just answer me already! Why won’t you say anything!? Have you just been lying to me!?”

At last can the cosmic Kybr not keep himself silent another moment longer, Mall finally responding to his angered ward outcries with: “We chose humanity to carry on the legacy, to mold this very universe accordance to their whims and to plot its very future alongside us. Tore...All that Kybr had done was to shape reality for the better and share in what we’ve created with all; even if it meant steering those who lived in this universe in a different direction. I myself couldn’t care less for what they plot to form this reality into...I simply couldn’t bare it anymore. The countless millennia of isolation and utter hopelessness I had toiled hiding from those who wanted us gone. I felt my very consciousness dull from the ever going loneliness. The life that I had felt when gliding alongside my kin, the joy I had partaken upon seeing a child of my own flourish had been left dimmed and withered to the merciless flow of time. I had resigned to such a fate. But a single spark was what had illuminated the hopeless void that had clouded my mind. Word of humanity, sparse human’s, growing to possess power those were bestowed by us once more. And lo and behold, the life within me that had hollowed had been restored upon seeing with my own vision those claims ring true; the future of the kin we had left behind. And during my journey alongside you, my boy, that very same spirit began to grow again. Bringing forth a dream I thought once impossible to achieve now on the cusp of coming true.” Midst declaring all of this, the cosmic Kybr approaches the young angel that stands before him; Mall kneeling down to his level once more to gently grasp his shoulder and begs out of him: “Tore, please, let us share this long awaited dream together. Let us welcome our kin home.” A long pause of quiet passes between the two angel’s as Mall awaits for the boy’s answer; all with nothing but the energy of the warp gate whirling through the air to fill the ambient silence.

But at long last does Tore finally bestow upon the lonesome broken man his answer as his hand balling into a quaking fist; the blue boy driving his knuckles straight into the cosmic angel’s face hard enough to send Mall careening across the top of the spire; the golden wall he slams into fracturing from the incredible blunt force. As the spacial bound Kybr starts to recover from the unexpected blow, a low groan utters out from his maw; the angel directing his site to the very boy who had struck him down. “Agh!...Wh-what the matter with y-” “You lied to me! You knew very well what the Kybr would do if they were freed; you knew they would terrorize the universe again and kept that from me! I trusted you! I fought alongside you! I looked up to you more than just a teacher; I wanted you to be like a dad, one I could actually stand alongside with. I cried when you offered me that. If you really cared that much about me, if you looked up to me like I was one of your own; you wouldn’t have kept me in the dark about something crucial, something that would’ve affected everyone I knew, what could doom everyone in this universe. I could’ve helped you. My family could’ve helped you. I bet even my friends could’ve helped you cope with being so alone and sad in this universe. You didn’t need to unleash an entire army of super beings that would destroy so many others…You didn’t need the Kybr to feel loved. But instead you chose this. Chose to try and release them. And chose to lie to my face!” Witnessing a flow of tears streak down from the boy’s enraged glare, Mall attempts to push through to him by uttering: “Tore, I didn’t-” “Shut up!...If you actually care. If you actually wanna still look at me like someone you care for,, then you’ll shut off the portal and keep the Kybr from breaking into this world.” Let utterly silent by the indigo angel’s ultimatum, the cosmic angel finally stands and hovers off the golden floor; glaring to the boy with determination and firmly declares: “No...I shall not let my kin suffer within their prison another moment longer, not with just a few more steps from opening the gates.” Knowing the Kybr’s ultimate decision left set in unbreakable stone, Tore’s entire body trembles alongside his breath; struggling to stand from the overwhelming heartbreak. But the indigo angel soon regains his composure to wipe away the river of tears from his eyes; staring on to cosmic angel that hovers before with his own branded determination and readies to face his former mentor. “Fine...But I’m not just gonna stand and let you doom the universe...To doom countless others...to doom my friends, my family, everyone I love!”

Its upon proclaiming this that Tore finally lunges forth towards his former mentor, dead set to deliver yet another betrayed fuel strike right to his face; what tears hadn’t dried at this point streaking off his cheeks as he approaches the cosmic angel. Moments as the indigo angel throws his fist straight out to the Kybr’s face, Mall holds his palm before the nearing blue boy and stopping him dead in his tracks; Tore feeling as if he had just hit an invisible solid wall. Its in that very same time that same space thrust him away with what felt like the force of a runaway semi truck, the blue boy sliding across the spires golden floor; Tore clutching the edge of the tower before he could be sent flying straight out into the sea of clouds behind him. Pulling out over the golden edge, the angel throws himself straight into the air above with a pale light gathering in his hand; Tore casts forth a beam of pale power down towards his spacial foe. Just as the ray was about to hit, the very space surrounding Mall redirects the beam to twirl around his very figure and splits apart under his command; the cosmic angel sending back the fracture pieces of pale white back towards their very sender. The blue boy delves right underneath the returning ray cluster as he swoops down towards his former master, Mall erecting a wormhole behind him to retreat from the blue boy’s diving assault.

Once sliding to a stop across the golden floor, Tore frantically peers to his surroundings for any sign of where the space manipulating angel had vanished to; failing to find even a single sign of his starry feathers anywhere in site. Midst wondering where the angel had disappeared to, Tore suddenly feels an invisible force squeeze his entire body from head to toe; almost as if the very space surrounding him was constricting the boy like a snake holding its prey. Slowly forcing his head to turn back, Tore discovers the cosmic angel emerging out from another hole with his clutched palm reaching out to the boy. With nothing but a swift swipe of his very hand, Mall commands the very space holding his pupil to fling him straight into one of the flora decorated golden walls that make up the top of the spire; some of the angel trumpets that hang from the swirls plucking off their stems and fluttering down onto the boy. Peering down does the blue boy see one of these flowers land cleanly onto the palm of his hand, a site which causes the gears in his head to start turning.

As he continues to face the young angel, Mall lets out a collection of stars from his very palm as he waves his hand through the air; every single twinkling star that the cosmic angel had conjured all thrusting themselves out to the blue boy all at once. Upon witnessing the stars incoming does Tore push himself off the wall of withered flowers and out towards the volley of glittering constellations Tore blocking them all with a single arm as he forces himself through shower of stars Powering through the barrage of twinkling bullets does Tore face the spacial Kybr once more; his fist glowing a rainbow of lively colors as he lobs it upwards towards the angel’s chin. Though Mall erects another wall of space between him and his blue ward like before, the solid space breaks apart upon the boy’s rising assault and is harshly struck right in the jaw hard enough send him skywards. Having uppercut his former mentor straight into the air, Tore rockets up after him to follow up with a hammering spike back down towards the spire floor; the glass platform Mall crashes into shattering from the impact.

While the blue angel hover back down onto the golden floor, he watches as his cosmic foe levitates right off the broken glass he bestows an applause; remarking how: “Using the life force of these flowers to power through. Excellent resourcefulness Tore. Seems I’ve trained you to use your abilities quite well. Bravo.” Despite his proud applause upon him, Tore keeps his glare locked upon the spacial angel; Mall himself ceasing his clapping to warm how: “However, if you believe that is enough to stop me. Then you are sorely mistaken.” On this very declaration does Mall then reach out to their surroundings and offers to how his own prowess with: “Allow me to show you what sort of influence the Kybr have upon this universe.” From the palms of his hands does the cosmic angel unleash an incredible bout of spacial power from his very depths; a monumental wave that bends and twists the golden spire they stand upon and until beginning to change into another location entirely.

Before the blue boy’s very eyes does he witness the golden walls of the spire transform, ditching the shimmering sheen of their swirls in place of rows and rows of faintly painted metal lockers. Peering down beneath his feet, Tore sees the glistening floor he stands upon loose its sheen as it’s morphed into slightly dirt ridden marble tile. Drifting his gaze skywards does Tore also watch as the starry night sky above is blanketed by popcorn ceiling donning flickering florescent lights. Between the lockers stood door after polished wood door, some of the cracking open to let some teens within peer out to the scene that plays out. “The Hell?” “What’s happening out there?” “Who the hell are these guys?” “Hang on. Isn’t one of them that strange blue dude with the angel wings?” Upon some of the students recognizing him does Tore himself realize where his former mentor had transported them too; this very hall being the very same hallway he walks through everyday in Townsville’s public school. “So this is my...Why did-” Right when the blue boy was about to question the cosmic angel why he had sent them here, the indigo angel puts his question on hold as he sees his former master continue to wave his hands through the air. All the kids that had peeked out from their classrooms are forced back inside before the hall that both angels stands begins to extend outwards; the end of the hall retreating into the horizon until vanishing into an infinite plane. Once commanding the space of the hall to extend endlessly, the spacial Kybr leaps back to retreat down the depths of the never ending corridor; Tore immediately pursuing after the retreating angel.

Amidst gliding away from the indigo angel, Mall turns back while continuing to retreat to unleash a salvo of stars that erupt out from the depths of his wings; Tore swatting away all the stars that streak out to him in his chase after Witnessing his spread of stars doing little to slow his blue wards feverish pursuit, Mall reaches his arms out towards the never ending rows of lockers that stretching out along the sides of the hall; their very metal stretching past their hinges and clustering together just before the boy. Left caught off guard by the unexpected blockade, the indigo angel slams straight through the barrier of cheap school grade steel and fumbles along the marble tile; but soon enough regaining himself and leaping off the floor in the middle of this blunder to resume the chase. As more and more of the lockers before him stretch out in an effort to block his way, Tore flies right over, under, and side to side every set that burst out from the walls; some dust flying out from the walls as the lockers protrude out. Upon watching the blue ward weave himself through every single set of lockers he stretches out, the cosmic angel clamps his hands together to command the lockers before him to all clamp together to form a wall of steel. A single lunging tackle is all it takes from the blue boy to bust straight through he blockade of cheap school grade steel; a couple of cobwebs flying through the air as Tore charges ahead.

Yet despite having broke straight through his former mentor’s barricade, the distance between the pair of angels continues to grow; Tore pondering of a way he can burst through the numerous lockers and close the gap. Not really any plants here to sap, though. Gotta be something here to take advantage off. Its in think of a way to draw out power that he feels something tickling his arms, the indigo angel glancing along his limbs to discover a couples of spiders and bugs scuttling along the surface of his skin. Bugs? Didn’t someone say that the school needed some sort of fumigation? Wait a sec, that’s it!

With an idea running through his blue noggin, Tore stretches both of his arms out to the endless row of lockers that sit along the side; his mind focused on all the numerous insects and arachnids that dwell within the cracks and crevices of the school walls. Come on… he concentrates on the dozens of vermin and insects that do swaths of color all seep out from their bodies, their very life gathering around the blue boy and surrounding him in coating of lively aura. Got it! “Excellent work Tore.” In hearing this come from his former mentor, Tore stares back to the gradually retreating angel; Mall further praising him on how: “Drawing out your aspect from the creatures hidden around you. But can you use such gathered power effectively?”

Its in that moment that every single locker that stands between them burst out from the wall and cluster together before the young angel in hopes of halting his pursuit; all the colorful life that the blue boy had gathered all coating his fists as he nears all the thicket of metal. With his very fists alone does Tore break through the rows of stretched steel as easily as ripping through paper; shards of the lockers metal scattering through the air as the boy breaks through every single wall that stands in his way. Seeing his pupil punch straight through the numerous barricades, Mall thrusts his palms out to the hall’s very walls and starts to pull them together; the cosmic angel warping the space itself into one blockade of solid stone and metal. With little time to stop himself from smacking straight into the twisted cluster of school brick and locker metal, Tore utilizes what energy he had gathered from his surroundings straight into the palm of his hands into a colorful orb of light; firing it all out in to the blockade in a stream of pure life. Effortlessly does the massive beam pierce straight through the thick rock and steel and striking the cosmic angel harboring behind; Mall letting out a pained grunt as his entire body is engulfed in the colorful glow.

Right then and there does the infinite hallway come to an end as Mall is sent careening straight through a set of door; the polished wood floor breaking underneath as he scrapes across the gym. From this crashing halt does every basketball player and P.E teacher suddenly stop dead in their track and gaze upon the spacial angel as he levitates himself off the middle of them floor. Following this do they then witness the blue boy break down the gym doors and land before the levitating man; a site which proves a good enough queue to go scrambling out for they realize that shit was going down. Once seeing every single coach and student all race right out through the corridor, Tore returns his site back to his former mentor; remain cautious despite Mall displaying a warm smile. “I must say, Tore. You’ve shown truly promising results thus far. But this examination is far from over.”

Upon this statement does Mall thrust his arms upwards towards the gym ceiling, the blue boy peering above and watches the support beams holding the roof up darken and morph from steel to stone. His attention is then drawn out to the walls, bleachers, and equipment that make up the gym all go through a similar transformation; some of the rock bursting into flames in the process. Its in witnessing all of this that he notices a bright orange light shinning out from the floor and peers down to discover the polished wood he stands on melting into hot molten liquid. Tore leaps right off the transforming floor as it fully forms into a lake of boiling lava and comes to find what he saw were airborne demons and drifting spirits sharing the blistering hot air. Soon enough is the site that Tore once saw as his school gym fully converted into the very depth of hell; both angel’s hovering just above a stretching lake of lava with a couple of brimstone islands decorated across the surface, all with little scales hopping out from the fiery molten depths.

Just as the indigo angel was curious why his former mentor had transformed their surroundings into this hellish lake of molten liquid, he returns his gaze to the cosmic Kybr to find Mall slowly bending his arms upwards; the lava lake they hang right over curving inwards alongside his limbs until covering the hellish skies above in a blanket of blistering hot magma. The lake that Mall had summoned forth had now been bent inward in an inverted sphere that now trapped them both in its twisted cage of molten goo and scorched brimstone; the lava within remaining suspended in the air as if the gravity itself had been twisted.

Once finished with their scorching hot cage, the cosmic angel then thrusts his palms down towards the very brimstone upsetting the lava; the piece of burning rock trembling for a moment before being uprooted from the molten goo. Raising the piece of scorching earth out from the depths of the magma lake, Mall clasps his hands together to command the rock to burst into pieces; the numerous remains of this very brimstone scatter through the air and chaotically revolve all around within the angel’s molten cage. One after the other does Tore swerve and evade all the directionless chunks of burning brimstone, navigating through the ongoing chaos as naturally as the winds traveling through a craggy canyon; the blue boy twisting about the storm of rock as he heads straight for his former mentor. Tore readies to deliver a swift spinning punch right to the spacial Kybr’s side as he closes in, the space around his former master twisting his body as he is fluidly veered right out across the angel’s side like a redirected stream of water. His assault having been thwarted, the indigo angel is but seconds away from taking a molten dive right down into the spherical wall of blistering hot goo; the blue boy stopping himself just short of the lake’s surface and makes a complete U-turn back towards the cosmic angel.

Witnessing his blue ward on the return, Mall commands the space around him to halt what burning brimstone happens to pass by and launches them all out towards the approaching indigo angel. With the barrage of fiery rocks raining down upon him, the blue boy thinks little as he simply breaks one of them to bits with just one kick; left caught off guard when bits of molten lava trapped within splatter out. Tore covers his face as the fiery hot goo splatters onto him, the blue angel continuing to swerve through the brimstone storm despite feeling the burns inflicted by the red hot lava across his body. Uncovering his face does the blue boy then see his former mentor simply direct more and more passing stones his way, the indigo angel taking little chances as he simply fires out sphere of his own power out to the approaching pieces of brimstone; with not even a single drop of the magma stowed within splashing into him. But when does his former mentor simply summon more and more burning chunks out after him, the blue boy hatches a little idea on how to use the hellish meteors against their caster and veers off along the lava prisons edges; all the pieces of burning brimstone giving chase after him as Mall himself watches closely. Soon does the cosmic angel witness the blue ward veer away from the lava side and start to near once more, Mall preparing to counter whatever sort of assault his pupil was planning. Yet at the very last moment does Tore suddenly ascend right over, his former mentor keeping his sites locked to him as the swarm of burning brimstone continues to follow. Once right hovering overhead, the blue boy quickly turns back and blasts out his own volley of pale power upon the pursing storm of hellbound rock; the magma that bursts out from within all splattering down toward his spacial foe. The lava threatening to rain down upon him, Mall keeps the descending drizzle from pouring onto him with a layer of solid space above; not a single drop able to even touch the starry angel’s very skin. Left distracted by the molten downpour, Tore takes this chance to steer right behind and rocket right towards his backside at breakneck speeds ready to strike with all his might.

Alas on the last moment does his swinging fist suddenly stop dead in the middle of the air, his knuckles just centimeters away from touching the cosmic angel’s back. Left paralyzed by the very space around him, all Tore could do was watch as his former mentor peers back into his very eyes; the last of the lava downpour dripping down behind him. “A valiant effort.” With this bit of praise however does Mall lift the blue ward up over his head while then criticizing how: “But physicality alone shall do little to aid you.” Upon declaring this, the cosmic angel thrust his palm downwards and sends Tore hurdling down towards one of the brimstone islands breaking up the lava lake; the blue crashing down and slide across the rough rock before stopping just short of the blistering hot rim. Though the blue boy attempts to stand back off the heated stone, his rise is ultimately cut short when his former master lands right onto his very chest and keeps him pinned to the hellish earth with just a single foot.

Struggling to escape underneath the spacial Kybr’s heel, the indigo angel gazes up to the lava behind him in his squirm and discovers something of note that he just now finds. Small schools of fish dressed in scales of pure bedrock leap right out from the depths of the lake, lively swimming through the lava as easily as freshwater. This only way outta this mess clear to him, the boy’s face tightens as he reaches out towards the rim; a sharp hiss sliding through the boy’s teeth before he swiftly dunks his limbs into the hellish molten goo. A sharp scream escapes from the boy maw as he keeps his arms submerged in the fiery lava, the odd and unpredictable act causing the cosmic angel’s guard to waver. Midst his agony do the pupils of his eyes start to glow a rainbow of color, Tore taking the moment to thrust his legs against Mall and kicking his former mentor off of him; bringing his arms back up to the surface as lunges after. His hands coated in a radiance of shimmering color, Tore reaches out to his fumbling foe’s head and clutches Mall’s very face; the indigo angel unleashing the life force he had somehow gathered into a point blank blast of radiant colors. The force alone was strong enough to send the spacial Kybr hurdling across lake, his body skipping across the surface like a tossed pebble until crashing right along side of a brimstone column.

While the hellish stone dust settles before him, Mall is left to ponder of the circumstances with utter: “That power. Where did-” While curiously questioning such does the angel direct his attention over to the very island he was blasted from, seeing the numerous scaly fish that had once jumped across the molten lava behind his ward now left bellying up; a proud smile stretches between his cheeks as pries himself out from the brimstone. “That’s much better.”

Whilst using what power was left to heal the numerous burns he had suffered, Tore watches as the man he once called his mentor hovers out to the very center of the lava cage and clasps his hands together; the space they both occupy once again contorting before his very eyes. The blue boy beholds the blister hot lava and brimstone that made up the environment now solidify and freeze as it starts to break apart; scorching heat of hell itself dipping into a deathly cold in a matter of just seconds. Tore starts to shiver and hovers upwards as the ground beneath him gives away, all the fiery light that shined from the lava disappearing and is replaced and coldly blue hue; the blue seeing his very breath permeate the frosty air. Within a matter of seconds does the indigo angel find himself floating within a frozen cavernous valley made up of thick icy paths, frosty slides, and arctic formations that stretch across the wide open cavern. Not this again.

Its in his shivering that Tore then peer out to the side and finds his cosmic foe floating in the middle of the freezing air, the spacial angel clasping his hands together before hammering himself straight in his very stomach; the impact causing dozens of cracks to rapidly grow along his figure. After this does Mall’s entire body break apart in a burst of glass, every single bit flying across the caverns and seeping into the icy formations that surround them. Despite this display of self destruction, the blue boy keeps his guard held high as he floats through the icy valley and prepares for whatever strange attack the cosmic Kybr has planned for him. Yet among his alert awareness does he fails to notice a faint light glimmering from the ice behind him; a reflection of his galactic foe’s figure sliding across the surface and sticks his arm right out to cast a star straight out to the blue ward. The starry blast hits the young angel’s back in a glittering explosion, sending Tore careening through frosty air. When finally stopping himself just before crashing straight into a hard icy wall, Tore peeks back to try and find what had thrown the glittering blast, but ultimately failing to find a single soul among the blue hue.

Its when seeking the culprit that he hears the strange sound of crackling ice behind him, the blue angel swiftly glancing back to discover his mentor within an icy slide behind him; Mall on the verge of tossing out another starry assault. In the nick of time does the blue boy evade his former mentor’s starry blast and chucks out his own pale energy straight out to Mall’s reflection; the icy formation he had dwell within shattering into glittering shards from the explosion. Even within the ice left into pieces, the young angel cannot find even a single sign of his former mentor among the frosty dust. While midst his confusion, Mall emerges out from the twisting icy pillar aside and rockets forth towards the blue boy; Tore himself glancing out just time to witness his former mentor on the approach. In the few seconds he had does the blue angel manage to evade the cosmic Kybr’s striking assault, his galactic foe just a few inches apart as he streaks right past. Even when having cleanly dodged the cosmic man’s surprise attack, the blue boy feels the very space behind him solidify; Tore looking over towards his former master and seeing him reach out to him with but the palm of his hand. Swinging his arm outwards does Mall cast his ward out through the icy cavern valley; Tore sent through icy paths and slides alike until crashing right into the valley’s hard ice wall.

Pulling himself straight out from the cavernous wall, the blue angel shakes off the ice stuck in his hair; his eyes widening when gazing ahead and finding the cosmic Kybr’s very image plastered across the icy formations making up the valley. He frantically looks through out all the ice paths, pillars, and slides in hopes of telling which of the many images of his former mentor be the right one as the slide across the surface like a pack of serpents; yet every single one he see’s prove completely identical to the rest. This isn’t good. Even if he comes out, there’s no way to physically touch him, not without something alive to draw power from. But what in the world could even survive in a place this blistering cold? Okay Tore, just think for a sec here. Think back to science class. The teach was going on about biology, right? Something about bacteria and micro organisms. She said that they were nearly in everything around us, even in like super extreme places like hot caves, hot springs, the depths of the ocean, even in Antartic- Its in pondering of his school teachers words that he snaps his sites over to the icy path that stretches beside him. Ice! That’s it! Upon this very revelation, the indigo angel glides down along the narrow icy path and slides the palm of his hand along its chilling cold surface; his mind focused on what microorganisms and bacteria could be dwelling underneath the frost. Its in his trip across the frosty narrow that bits of color start to slither through the solid ice and gather in the palm of his hands. When beholding all the life he had gathered from the microorganisms living within the ice, he’s left a little disappointed to find the size of a marble, one not even bigger than the palm of his hand. Huh. Guess this much is about what you’d expect from bacteria.

Venturing his site back towards the rest of the cavernous valley, the blue boy comes to find dozens upon dozens of his former master very image streak across every icy surface; each reflection moving of its own independence. Ain’t got much to work with here. Better make it count. Whilst keeping his eyes on the numerous pictures of the cosmic angel does he see them all suddenly disappear all at once; not a single trace of Mall left showing anywhere among the ice. Where...where did- In his frantic search for where the spacial Kybr could strike does he take a peek back just in time to see the cosmic angel charging out; mere moments away from ramming into him. With what life force he had gathered from the bacteria within the ice, the indigo angel coats the base of his foot its its colorful glow as he kicks out to his nearing foe; Tore kicking Mall straight into the roof of the icy cave. The very moment that the galactic angel crashes through the ceiling does the blue boy witness the icy valley he floats in crumbling like broken glass; all of their shards descending down into the deep black abyss set below.

In gliding through the void does the blue angel soon unintentionally flops down into solid ground; Tore prying himself out from the solid rock and discovers veins of bright lime green running across the rugged curving surface. Veering his sites upward does he find himself standing dead in the center of a wide crater that rival the size of several football fields. Along the surface of the crater do his pupils shrink when finding what were remains of colorful brick among the ruins; their once vibrant color having faded away from the anneals of time. This very site bubbles a powerful mix of dread and despair what was once buried within his very core; a feeling of sorrow that not only makes his very soul tremble, but makes him fall to his very knee’s. This place…

Before the boy could partake in a single moment of lament, his gaze is drawn upwards as an angelic shadow slides past his body; Tore gazing skywards to the very top of a long and towering flagpole where a torn banner holding what seemed was once a platypus. The blue boy see’s Mall perch himself at the very top end of this decrepit and ruined symbol; the galactic angel gazing down upon his wards as Tore slowly starts to rise back on his feet. “Magnificent show Tore. You’ve truly demonstrated greater promise that even the humans we had cultivated in the days of old. But this demonstration is not over yet. For now we reach the finale.” Declaring such does Mall suddenly rocket up high in the night sky, his cosmic trail overtaking the earthly stars. When hovering in the middle of the starry sky, the Kybr’s cosmic wings starts to vastly expand out; Mall blanketing the once peaceful starry sky above and transform them into the deep cosmos that reflects within his angelic wings. Swirling galaxies, leviathan sized planets, bright scorching suns, burning meteors, and billions upon billions of stars. Some of these stars gather onto the galactic angel’s back and bond together to give the angel a new starry set of wings as he descends down upon the glowing green earth; opening his eyes to face the blue angel that takes his stand against him with a determined and ready glare.

In just but a single instance does the entire length of Mall’s very figures stretch right out before the blue boy, the back of his body following after and catching right up as the cosmic angel stands before his pupil. Left caught off guard by his former mentor’s strange lunge out to him, all Tore could do to react was to leap back as he tosses out a ball of pale white out to the spacial Kybr; the retreating assault proving utterly fruitless as Tore’s blast scatters into pieces before even touching his foe. Witnessing his blue ward attempting to gain some distance, the cosmic angel reaches his arms up towards the cosmos that hangs above them both; some of the galaxies above drawn out from the reaches of space and shrinking as they near the planets surface. Though their immense size had been reduced significantly, these swirling galaxies still boasted the size of apartment complexes; the angel who had summoned them having next to no trouble hurdling them both out to his blue pupil.

Beholding these massive disk shaped celestial bodies swiftly glides right out at him, Tore up and decides to lunge out to them as they twirl his way; the light from their numerous stars glistening along his body as he squeezes right between them both. Finding his cast out celestial bodies having missed, the spacial angel thrusts his fingers out to both of the hurdling galaxies and commands them both to veer back towards the blue boy; Tore himself noticing the light from these galaxies and peering out to discover them both hurdling out to both of his side. With the pair of twin galaxies pinching out towards him, the blue angel stops dead in his track moments as they near and lets them both pass in front; their starry surfaces shining their glisten along the boy’s face as they pass through. Keeping his sites locked to the twin celestial bodies does he see them both steer themselves back out for another go at him; Tore seeing his moment when finding one of them approaching faster than the other. Just seconds before the edge of one of these celestial bodies could strike the indigo angel down, Tore clasps its very rim with nothing but his bare hands; the stars scraping against his palm as the impact drags him across the irradiated crater. Glancing past the galaxy trapped in his hands, the blue boy witnesses the other follow after the first, something that he had fully expected as he starts to lift the one he holds upwards and tosses it back to its twin; both of these galaxies colliding together and exploding in a shower of glowing stardust that lights the entire crater and the land behind.

Once the bright aftermath of the collision finally dims, Tore uncovers his eyes and glances around for any sign of his galactic foe; finding next to no sign of the spacial angel anywhere among the crater rubble. Its in that moment that he see’s the very sky itself start to glisten and aims his eye site above to find his former master hovering above; the fields of stars behind him rapidly twinkling as he points a single finger down upon the earth. From the cosmic skies above do all these thousands of stars all descend down from the very heavens akin to divine beams of light; every single one streaking down towards the blue boy in rapid fashion. The indigo angel glides across the green glowing crater as these numerous galactic rays crash down upon the earth in their attempt to strike him down; each descending star crashing down onto the earth he flies behind. Gazing back does Tore begin to see all the twinkling stars descending closer and closer as they all plummet from the skies above; some of them crashing down right behind his very feet. Aiming his sights towards his former mentor above, the blue boy watches the cosmic angel above and notices all the stars that rain down from the heavens streak right by him, as if commanding every one he summons from the depths of space to steer away from him. Doesn’t seem like he’s paying that much attention to them though. Wonder if…

Noticing this detail from his former mentor, the indigo angel peeks back and lobs out a bit of his own pale power out in a dynamic curveball; the sphere of white streaking along the surface of the crater as he ascends skywards across the cosmic sky above. Soon in its short journey through the sky does it blend in alongside the stream of descending stars and start to streak down towards the cosmic angel’s backside. Moments before the blue boy’s ball can strike the spacial angel down, Mall swiftly does a complete 180 to waft his pupils attempt of a sneak attack aside; the stars that streak past casting their light upon his disappointed glare. But in that very moment does the cosmic Kybr then feel something strike his very back, a second ball of pale light having exploded against Mall’s behind while his back was turned. All the stars from the cosmos above finally cease their torrential downpour as the angel who had commanded them himself plummets down towards the lime green crater in a smoking descent; the blue boy rocket right out towards his former master as he falls towards the earth.

Mere seconds before Tore could follow up his successful assault does his spacial foe suddenly stop in the air just before crashing into the glowing earth; Mall reaching his palm out to the approaching blue angel and halting him dead in his tracks. Before the indigo angel could even fight back against the space holding him in place, the cosmic angel casts him out from the earth and sends him skywards out to the cosmos above. Shortly after being flung skywards does Tore manage to regain his aerial balance, the blue boy peering back from whence he came to discover the scorching surface of the sun having replace the very earth he had been tossed from; its sheer light nearly blinding the boy as he hovers several feet above its blistering hot surface. Gazing away from the giant star’s fiery bright surface, the blue boy discovers the very angel that had sent him up now hovering above; the cosmic Kybr starring straight down upon his very ward despite the blinding sunlight behind him.

With nothing but a wave of the angel’s very hand does Mall push the blue boy out towards the blistering star set behind him; the gravity of the sun strengthening its pull towards what hovered around it and starts to drag the indigo angel towards its blazing hot surface. And though Tore fights back against the sun’s overwhelming gravitational pull, the incredible spacial force continues to drag him tick by tick towards his fiery doom. Among resisting this near dominant spacial force does the indigo angel see numerous flares spurt out from behind, Tore peering back to discover pillars of flame erupt out from the fiery surface and streak out towards him. While evading all the solar flares that burst from behind, all the blistering spurts send out a strong solar wind that starts to push the blue boy away; enduring the overwhelming sunny heat that bellows behind and glides him away from the surface. Watching his blue pupil begin to escape from the fiery star’s gravitational force, Mall reaches out towards the depths of the cosmo’s set behind them; the angel calling forth a shower of asteroids that all rain down towards the surface of the sun. Slithering around both the comet torrent from above and the pillars of flame that spurt out from below, Tore once again starts to be pulled towards the fiery sun; the gears in the blue boy’s head turning as he attempt to think of a way outta this mess. Midst pondering of such do his eyes manages to catch the site of one of the meteors that had been cast down towards the sun caught within a pillar of fire that spurts out from the surface; the intense force of the bursting combustion strong enough to send the asteroid flying back out to the depths of space. There it is. The ticket outta this mess.

Continuing to weave around the dozens of rising flames and falling boulders all around him, Tore keeps watch of all the rocks that plummet down towards the star set behind him; most of them disintegrates from the incredible heat as they reach the top of the simmering surface of the sun. What are ya trying to be polite now? Come on, just let one loose already! Watching among all the meteors that descend down towards the face of the sun that he see one of them plummet down towards a spot of the surface on the verge of bursting; the indigo angel chasing down the very asteroid as it plummets. Hovering from above does the spacial angel watch all this play out before him, Mall left perplexed as his blue pupil simply stands atop one of the falling comets that fall towards the gigantic star; both Tore and the rock swallowed by the sun’s intense light.

Meager moments just before the rock that the blue angel stands upon could touch down onto the fiery surface, an incredibly powerful solar flare bursts out from its very surface and erupts onto the bottom of the asteroid; the insane force of the rising flames shooting the rock and the boy who stands upon it out from the sun’s pull and through the torrent of comets. When seeing his indigo opponent rocket right out towards him, Mall redirects the path of a pair of asteroids that plummet beside him straight out to the rock his pupil rides; the spacial angel watching as the three comets collide into each other in a violent explosion of rock dust that blankets the light of the sun. Out from the asteroid dust does a lone hand emerge out from its very depths clutches tightly onto the cosmic Kybr’s very neck; the rest of the cloud scattering to reveal the very hand to belong to his unscathed blue ward. Having caught the cosmic angel in his clutches, the blue boy turns back towards the leviathan star that burns underneath them both and hurls his former mentor down towards its fiery hot surface; Tore watching as Mall hurdles towards the bright sun like a descending meteor. The bright sunlight from the star grows brighter as the cosmic angel falls closer to its very surface, the sun soon enveloping the very space they occupy within its solar warmth.

This incredibly blinding light eventually dims to show the blue boy fluttering back down within the glowing green ruins; Tore left peering along the sides of the crater for any sign of where his former mentor is. During this little look through these very ruins does the indigo angel notice a deep shadow beginning to loom over the irradiated earth, peering up to see what could cast such blanketing darkness; Tore’s left in astonishing horror when discovering what hangs above. Several thousand feet above earthly surface does he find Mall peering down upon him, a lone planet of which outclasses the very Earth itself dropping down from the depths of the cosmos behind him; its sheer size rivaling that of Neptune. The very angel that had summoned the descending planet disintegrates into stardust as its face passes through him, only leaving the earth itself right in the midst of its destructive path. Tore falls to the Earth as he watches the leviathan planet plummet; his knee’s trembling as he lands in the middle of the crater. Wha-what can I even...No...I won’t let it end like this! There’s gotta be something here, something to work with. But this crater, its all lifeless. Everything’s dead. Where on Earth can there be anything alive left around...Oh my god. That’s it!

Its in figuring out an incredible realization that the indigo angel thrusts his legs deep into the tainted soil; the blue boy punching his arms straight into the rock as the planet above grows ever closer. Just please work with me. There’s not much time left. The boys pleading thoughts pierce the craters irradiated soil and echo throughout the Earth, reaching the very essence of every living thing that dwells within and upon the planet. Bits of life from every person, every plant, every creature, every living organism starts to seep through the ground they stand or hover over; none of them even realizing the minuscule pieces of their lives were escaping from their beings. Even the energy of the planet’s core itself travels out from beneath the earth to reach out to the blue boy; every bit of life that burrowing through the earth at blinding speeds. The very sky and ground that make up the planet is glown alight as all the pieces of life gather towards the very point they had been called upon; all to gather within Tore’s very body. The crater that the boy has rooted itself in starts to let out a powerful glow as more and more power gathers within minutes.

Soon enough is the entire once dead crater proves ready to burst forth with all the life that had gather throughout the entire planet; the deathly lime green that had cursed the earth merging alongside all the color that had been collected. All at once does the collection of life spurt from the Earth in a ray of colorful light, the blue boy that had called upon it all leading it straight through the sky and to the oncoming planet above. Midst passing through the Earth’s atmosphere does color coated angel begin to feel the intense friction blister his very skin, the blue boy hissing in pain as he endures spacial entry. Can’t heal...Gotta put everything into this… His burning flight straight from his home takes him speeding towards the planet that plummets above; the indigo angel soon entering the stratosphere of the leviathan. In an instant does Tore pierces straight through the giant planets surface and continue through its rock like a bullet; tearing straight through towards its very core.

Hovering over all of this, the cosmic angel watches in awe as the colossal planet he had summoned forth, breaking apart as multiple colors fracture across its surface and exploding a burst of bright color. Peering past this glowing spurt does Mall discover a lone figure erupting out from the light at astounding speeds; Tore approaching from the planets remains with little lively color left streaking along his body. What powerful life he had left to spare, Tore cocks his arm back as far as possible while coating his very fist in the lively glow he nears his former mentor; ready to put everything he had gathered from the Earth into a single attack. The indigo angel eventually reaches his former superior and thrust what life he had left straight into his foe’s very stomach; both angels enveloped in a brilliant colorful glow stemming out from the point of impact.

Eventually does every piece of the lively glow fade away as the cosmo’s erected disappears; Tore left slowly hovering downwards as the space surrounding him is restored back into the very top of the golden spire where the feud had begun. Heavy breath pass out from his lips as he touches down onto the broken glass beneath his feet, the blue angel using what strength he had left spare to keep from collapsing onto the shards. Keeping stable enough, the boy gazes skywards up to the halo above and discover the picture of another dimension held within that’s halfway transparent. Still not too late...Just...Just need to…

Among this brief moment of respite and all the needed relief that it had given to the indigo angel is sudden shattered in but an instant when he starts to hear clapping; Tore’s pupils shrinking when peering back out to the side and discovering his former mentor alive and well, wearing a smile as he gives the boy an applause. “A magnificent performance, Tore. You’ve proven the potential to wield your aspect as as effectively as those in the days of old. Even with how much I had restrained myself, you’ve surpassed every single one of my expectation; I really couldn’t be more proud of you. You’re on your way of becoming a fully fledged Kybr.” “You’re...kidding...All that….was holding back to you!?” the indigo angel questions as he trembles. “Oh ho. Unfortunately so.” Mall confirms, commanding the space around his pupil to make him fall to his knee’s.

“Why then.. Why did you put me through all that? Why didn’t you just get it over with and finish me?” the blue boy demands to know, the angel he questions floating towards him. “I don’t want our bond to end in nothing but bitter blood; I meant it when claiming how you brought life back into my very existence, giving me the motivation and desire to continue. I am truly regretful to have kept the truth from you during their time together, afraid that it would drive you away. I couldn’t bare to be alone anymore, not in a universe that had cast our kind away. I truly did treasure the experiences I had shared with you Tore; I don’t wish for it to end like this.” In his struggle to arise from the shards of broken glass does the indigo angel peer up from the ground to witness a hand be extended down to him; Mall offering a welcoming arm as he pleads to the boy: “Please, Tore. I beg of you. Cease this hopeless struggle so that we may welcome the Kybr, our kin back to their long lost home.”

Nothing but the ambient winds are all that are heard for a couple moment before Tore finally starts to reach his hand out to the cosmic angel; Mall’s hopes beginning to rise as the boy’s as the boy’s hand nears. When just an inch away from him, Tore smacks his former mentor’s palm aside, at last responding back. “You don’t know how much I wanted something like this so badly. To have someone I could look up to in my times of need when I felt like every bit of hope was lost; somebody my dad wasn’t. I was starting to think at long last that wish was coming true. But all that wishing just led me straight to this! I can’t go down his road, Mall. There may be people you loved then trapped in there, but there are people now who love me here. If the Kybr are freed, there’s no guarantee the world I’ve come to know and love will live...If everyone in this universe will live. The existence both of us want...they can’t both be true.”

Despite the blue boy’s word of rejection leaving cosmic angel heartbroken, despite the stream of tears that flow from his eyes: he claims to him how: “I understand…” Mall aims his palm right above his blue wards head as glittering stardust starts to gather within his hand; the collecting cosmic power glistening against the boy’s face as a star forms before him. “The time I spent with you is something I will always treasure. I thank you for our time together.” As the light in the man’s hand grows its brightest, Tore shakes away what tears were left within and locks his eyes to the end; refusing to look away as he prepares for his former mentor to finish him then and there. Unyielding, to the last bit of life.

Right before the end could come upon him, Tore witnesses a gigantic pike of pure black thrust itself straight through his former mentor; the spear piercing most of the cosmic angel’s chest. A short breath escapes from Mall’s mouth as he displays a haunting mixture of shock and dreads; the stars that had gathered within the his palm dispersing as the pike within his very chest starts to withdraw from whence it came. The gravely wound the spear of black leaves behind shows the inside of the Kybr’s body reflecting the cosmo’s itself, the starry sky leaking out from the head sized hole like thick glittering blood, blood that splatters across the golden floor as Mall falls face first before his blue ward. Tore arises from the cracked glass floor as his former mentor falls face first, confusion and remorse easy to see across the boy’s eyes as he reaches down to the downed angel. “Mall?...” “Yo.” he hears a familiar voice grab his attention with.

His site drawn out towards the very edge of the spire, the indigo angel discovers the pike that had impaled his former master to withdraw to his purple brother’s side; both Roy and Mally standing atop the golden staircase as they gaze upon their blue brother in relief. “Glad to see we made it just in time.” the orange skater states. “Guys...Wha…what are you-” Tore is left to utter the blend of astonishing disbelief still fresh on display. “That shit should be obvious, ain’t it. Came all this way to see ya.” the merc obviously states with a pinch of sass, the two of them waltzing to their brother’s side. “Gotta say, Tore. You seriously wouldn’t believe the sort of sites we saw just trying to find you. Like I got some stories here that’ll make ya question what the hell we were even doing.”  Mally remarks. “Seriously, it was already a pain in the ass to try and figure out where the hell ya went, you should see what sort of rowdy maniacs we had to bring along for the ride.” Roy adds. “Oh please. Like you’re in any position to judge anyone’s character without hypocrisy.” somebody from behind brings up.

Curious of who had given this very statement, the blue boy peers behind his sibs and sees a collection of five climbing over the golden steps that they had risen from ;Alex, Hank, Melvin, Vivi, and Ryan all stepping/hovering up to the top of the spire and taking in its glorious golden site. “Sweet plastic propellers, just look at all this! The blinking rings with wings, the golden swirls along the sheen, the halo spinning above. It all seriously looks like something straight out of a sci-fi novel. Don’t it make ya wanna dig straight in and figure out what sort of tech something like this could even be running on?” Hank geeks out with. “Meh, just looks pretty tacky to me.” Melvin beside him simply states.

Standing along the very rim of the spire, both Vivi and Ryan stare out into the blending site of the starry sky above and the sea of nightly clouds flowing below; the half skeleton left utterly star struck from the view alone. “Fucking sweet Jesus, look at all we be up in here! Its like the heaven went and decides to slip us a little site of the heaven underneath the skirt. We taking in the sweet shit, bitch.” “I just can’t imagine how we’re still even breathing all the way up here.” Ryan simply ponders aloud.

“I-I can’t believe all of you are even... How’d all of you even figured out where I was?” Tore questions his siblings. “Sure as hell wasn’t easy. Mal here kept following trail after trail of breadcrumbs in, out, and all around all over the fuckin place. Like we deadass found a hidden prehistoric land full of dinosaurs just trying to find ya.” “Wha! Aw, lucky. The only highlight of my trip was going down to hell.” the blue boy retorts. “Bruh, you fuckin serious?” While her bro’s continued to discuss points of their adventure, Mally’s gaze drifts over to the winged man that lies before them; the orange skater cutting through their conversation to question her blue bro if: “Uh, Tore. This guy do anything to ya to drag you with him?” The indigo angel ceases to speak for a brief moment as he gloom’s down to the remains of what he once called his spacial master; Tore taking in a deep breath before finally admitting how: “Nope. Went with him on my own?” “You’re kidding right? The hell would wanna make ya leave everyone behind after surviving a life threatening explosion just to pal around with this starry asshat ya barely know?” the purple merc questions him with. “I...I just felt...I just wanted someone with powers like mine to look up to, okay. Maybe to gimme some pointers on how all this works and what else I could do, I don’t know...What was I even thinking?…” Such a statement from their blue brothers draws out pity within their; Roy slightly shaking his head about as he peers down to the body of the cosmic angel.

“Hate to spoil this sentimental moment here, but can anyone enlighten us to what could be forming in the ring above.” “What!?” the blue angel utters, his sadness shattering into troubling alarm as he gazes skyward to the halo spinning above them all. Held within the twirling ring does the picture of the other dimension start to lose transparency, showing more and more of a solid picture depicting numerous angelic beings held within. “No!” Rushing right beside both his siblings does Tore race right to the center of the broken glass platform dwelling in the middle; the blue boy kneeling down and repeatedly slapping the palm of his hand against one of the chunks of glass. “Come on! Come on!” Despite repeatedly beating his hand against the glass, not a single sheen of light comes protruding out from its surface; the indigo angel letting out a frustrated groan before claiming aloud how: “Agh! The panel is completely broken! There’s no way to shut it off! So how else can we stop the warpgate from-...That’s it!”

Almost immediately does the blue boy race back towards his siblings side; the friends that they had gathered coming together as Tore proclaims to them how: “Guys, listen. If the control panel is down, then we don’t have much other choice then to head down in the center of this warpgate and destroy the Orphan.” “I like where this is going.” Alex remarks. “Say again?” Hank requests. “You seriously wantin us to fuck up an orphan, mate?” Vivian questions. “No, I- Th-That’s what they just call the core.” “Fucking call it the core then for god sake! Why ya gotta name it something so ominous?” Ryan blurts out. “But we didn’t find any other hall climbing up here. How the hell you expect us to find it?” Melvin asks. “Only a Kybr can use their power to open the way down into the center. But we gotta hurry; there might not be much time left.” Upon this desperate plea does Tore start to follow the others as all of them sprint out to the stairs they came up from; every single one of them stopping straight dead in their tracks when all of them hear a voice demanding that they all: “Stop!”

This very call withdraws their attention back towards the center of the spire; all of them beholding the man that Roy had struck down slowly hobbling right off the broken glass beneath his feet, despite harboring the gaping hole in his chest that continues to bleed out the cosmo’s. In between his breaths does he aim his piercing glare to them all as he claims to them how: “I refuse to let it end like this...I refuse to spend another waking moment in this world without the warming embrace of my own kind.” With this declaration cemented, an incredible wave of spacial power begins to envelope the angel’s wounded body; his once human like skin beginning to reflect countless planets, stars, and entire galaxies. “The Kybr are coming home!”

This commitment set, a monumental torrent of cosmic energy bursts out from Mall’s very being; a powerful shock wave that nearly sends everyone flying right off the spire. The earthly night sky is rend apart to reveal the depths of the cosmos underneath the blanket of stars, all while Mall’s body starts to implode in order to start metamorphosing into an entirely different being. Midst this transformation do both Roy and Mall cast forth a beam of dark purple and the yoyo gadget respectively;  their desperate assault however repelled back by the incredible spacial gravity that floods out from their foe.

The angel’s drastic transformation proving to be utterly unstoppable, the boy that Mall had once called his own ward turns back over to all to his friends and family and demands that Roy: “Roy. I need you to lead everyone down into the hall and slap your hand against the inner side. You’ll open up a tunnel that leads down to the very center of the warpgate. You’ll know you found the core when you see a glowing baby floating in the middle of a bunch of spinning golden ring.” “Is that seriously why they call it the Orphan? What the f-” “Just go now! Before the portal opens!” All but the blue angel start to races straight down the golden step dash through into the hall without so much as another word; leaving Tore to face the mass of cosmic space he had once knew as his master, watching as countless wings start to sprout from the collection of cosmos. It doesn’t matter if you can’t be beaten, it doesn’t matter if you have the entirety of space under your beck and call. Just need to buy time for them all to go down and stop the warp gate from opening. If they can do all that, then it’ll be all worth it. It’ll be all worth it. It won’t matter if this is how things end.

Among his moment of preparation for what he may presume to be his final moments facing immeasurable odds, Tore then discovers both his brother and sister coming to his sides; the indigo angel demanding to know: “What are you two doing!? If the core isn’t destroyed then-” “Relax. Our pals down there got it all covered. And beside, you need more help up here than they do down there.” his orange sister informs. “Nrr! Do you know what’s even at stake here!?” “You seriously think we don’t know? We didn’t wind up following this trail of vague clues just to be told to piss off. We fought through the worst sort of shit nature could possibly hack up from every one of its holes just to find ya, and were damn well not gonna just up and leave like that.” Roy boasts out. “We started this hole journey separated, so now were gonna finish it together. You’re stuck with us weather you like it or not, and their ain’t a damn thing you can do about it.” Mally protests. “Guys…” Despite this nigh upset tone, a river of tears begin to flood out from the ducts of his eyes; Tore letting out a small snivel before crying: “Thanks. You two are the best pair of siblings anyone could ask for.” After their blue brother wipes away the tears from his eyes, he joins his purple brother and orange sister as they steel their conviction against the outer worldly foe before them; taking their stand against such immeasurable odds together.

The mass of unfiltered cosmic space finally takes its tangible form before the trio; hundreds upon hundreds of wings stretching for miles on end all swirls out from the center, their flesh made from the twinkling stars and galaxies of the universe as countless eyes all open upon from beneath its very skin. In the very center of this celestial body where the countless wings swirl from, a massive eye opens that twinkles and glows like the depths of the cosmos itself. The angel’s celestial transformation finished, Mall lets out a heavenly holy roar from the depths of their very soul; an incredible howl that shatters the very space they all dwell in. The scene of the golden tower breaks apart into thousands of pieces, the very floor they stand on crumbles away, the sky itself shatters until none of it remains; all of it swallowed by the scene of stars, planets, galaxies all floating within the depths of space. Tore, Mally, and Roy all now hover within this very cosmos with their holy foe floating before them, every single eye along the angel’s body staring down upon them all.

The first assault that the holy abomination throws out against the trio be an entire wave of numerous planetoids that all streak out from the cosmo’s held withing Mall’s very wings; all of them boasting unique shapes as they hurdle out towards the three. Seeing the storm of approaching planets close in, Tore grasps his sisters hand as both Roy and he glide out to the approaching barrage of worlds; soaring along and over the surface of not just spherical planets, but flat discs, waning crescents, leaning parallelograms, and numerous other strangely shaped polygons that careen in their direction. While holding onto her brother as he soars through the stream of small planets, Mally feels the light gravity of each beckon her to their almost smooth, polished surfaces; their gravitational pull giving the orange skater a clever little idea. “Tore!” she alerts her blue brother with. “Yeah?” “I think I know a way to close the distance. Fling me to one of those planet.” “What!? What are you even-” “Just do it!”

Despite his initial hesitation, the indigo angel flings his orange sister out towards one of the approaching disc shaped planetoids; Mally reaches out from behind to pull out her skating gear and swiftly starts to strap on her skates. The lass manages to don her skates moments before she approaches the planets surface and glides across its very face as smoothly as a knife cutting through silky smooth butter; the orange skater taking out both her hockey stick and grapple yo as she nears the end of the planetoid. Reaching the very edge does Mally leap right off the planet and out towards the next, flipping across space as she escapes the gravitational pull of the previous world and let the triangular one ahead pull her straight in. Gliding right across one of the triangle worlds sides, the orange skater sets her sites outwards towards a nearby waning crescent and leaps right off towards the moon; feeling the gravity pull against her body as she jumps between these planets. Mally glides across the inner edge of the waning moonside as naturally as a halfpipe, weaving around large worms that burrow in and out from the moon’s very rock; her sites drawn over towards a hexagram world made from crystallized tungsten and keeps her grapple yo handy when nearing the end of the crescent she skates on. Launching herself straight off the side of the moon, the orange lass drifts out towards the tungsten hexagram and cast her trusty gadget out to one of its pointed ends; the grapple yo’s string wrapping around the rugged point and letting the girl twirl around and around, constantly using the momentum to keep building speed. Upon finally unraveling her string from the point of raw tungsten, Mally flings herself out at breakneck speed; making a complete beeline straight for their celestial foe.

Closing the distance between her and the angelic horror, the orange haired girl swings her hockey stick towards the monstrous angel’s center eye; her tip of her weapons head stopping just short of Mall’s starry sclera. The orange lass is forced to a stop right before she could strike her leviathan foe, Mally struggling to push against whatever force is stopping her short of smacking the eye of the holy monster. Midst her struggles is she ultimately catapulted away from the abominations twinkling eye by an incredibly strong wave of space, one that Mally blocks with the neck of her weapon. Though she is mostly spared from the overwhelming spacial power, her precious hockey stick is scrambled to pieces under the powerful wave; Mally threatening to drift out towards the depths of the cosmo’s.

Before the young girl could drift too far out into the depths of the infinite, a streak of black and violet sweeps her away; Mally opening her eyes to find herself resting in her purple brothers arms. “Damn, took one helluva blow there, huh. Shocked your still in once piece.” he comments. “But, but my hockey stick…” she utters, peering over her brother’s shoulder. Glancing back to where his sis stares does he see what was left of her once treasured weapons; its remains threatening to drift away into the cosmos. “Hang on a sec.” the purple angel request as he casts his newfound dark arm out towards what was left of his sisters weapon. Upon nearing the scattered pieces of wood does the arm split into dozens of strands that all reach out to every single fractured splinter that once made up the hockey stick; all of its chunks cobbling together among the mass of darkness as it retreats back to its very sender. When returning to their side, Mally finds her destroyed weapon now glued back together by the very matter that makes up her brother’s arm; Roy himself handing the rebuilt hockey back into his sisters hand as he ask her how: “You remember how I get my arm to transform?” “By thought, right?” “Think of a weapon while ya hold it.” Like her brother instructs her to do, Mally starts to concentrate on a particular new weapon different to the one in her hands; the orange lass witnessing the head of her hockey stick engulf in the black matter that holds it together, stretching out into the long black blade of a great scythe. “There ya go.” “Nice.”

Its in this very moment that the stars within the cosmic angel’s center eyes start dim, Mall’s entire pupil and sclera darkening as black as coal, the rest of the eyes decorating the holy monsters wings following suit and dimming into darkness. The trio watch as their galactic foe splits themselves straight in half, both fracture pieces parting ways to unveil a tiny black dot that begins to draw in the nearby stars; the hole quickly growing to threaten to pull all of them into its void. Amidst being dragged straight into the darkness, Roy tosses his sister away from the hole’s monumental pull; the strength of the merc’s throw letting Mally escape towards a nearby planet as both he and Tore are threatened to be pulled into the black holes depths. Among gliding across the stars, the orange skater acts fast and flings her trusty grapple yo out towards her retreating blue brother; grabbing the blue boy’s attention with: “Tore!” Peering out where his orange sister floats away, the indigo angel sees the girls yoyo wrap itself all around his leg and further hears Mally demand that he: “Grab Roy!”

Without so much as another word does Tore start to race out towards their purple brother as he threatens to plunge into the void, all while their orange sis drifts off towards a nearby planet with her weapon at the ready. Upon touching down onto the planets surface, Mally digs the head of her transformed weapon straight into the worlds very soil; strands of the blade breaking off and rooting themselves into the planet. As her blue brother clutches their violet siblings arm moments as they were nearing the abyss, Mally wraps the steel string of her gadget around her very arm and keeps a tight hold of them both; fighting against the overwhelming strength of the black hole’s pull. Amidst her steadfast struggle does the steel string around her arm harshly chaff her, the incredibly tight friction cutting through her skin and causing her arm to bleed; the orange lass refusing to let go despite the overwhelming pain. For about half a minute straight does the orange girl keep her brothers from falling into the depths of the black hole, even as space around her is rend into its lifeless void; Mally’s pupil’s glowing a distinct blood red as she keeps hold of the pair of angels.

But at long last does the strength of the void finally dissolve away and its very pull fading from the space around them; Mally jerking her brothers back out towards her as the black hole finally putters out into nothingness. Rescued from their doom, Tore lets out a sharp hiss when discovering the orange girls arm left cut and torn as the blood that leaves it hovers out into the depths of space. Aw, that ain’t good. That seriously isn’t good. While unwrapping his sister gadget from his own leg leg, the blue boy notices the yoyo’s shell glowing alight; the crystal held within reflecting a glow quite similar to the life he’s pulled from other sources. Think it needs a tiny bit more juice. Clasping the shell of the gadget into the palm of his hand, the indigo angel disperses a little more of his power into the crystal with; his sisters grapple yo glowing brighter with a multitude of colors. Once beaming bright with life, Tore flings his siblings gadget back into her side as its string retracts into the shell; some of the power kept with splashing onto the girls arm as the grapple yo returns into her hand. This very power closes Mally’s bleeding wound and mends the pain throbbing across her arm; the skater herself recovering from the agonizing suffering and peering over to see her gadget to find its shell beaming with colorful light. “We got ya back, Mal.” the blue angel claims “Go ahead and beat this mofo down.” their purple brother tells her. Knowing her brothers got her back, Mally casts her colorful glowing gadget straight out to a nearby asteroid; the skater retracting the string back to fling herself out towards their holy foe.

Among gliding out towards the cosmic angel before them, the orange skater first comes across an entire cluster of solid stars and asteroids standing in her way; Mally drifting herself out towards one of these solid stars and leaping right across its crystallized surface and bouncing from star to star. Once making out of the dense star cluster does the girl then discover a planet with a ring around it similar to Saturn’s own; a big smile stretching across her face as she nears the very edge of the ring. With nothing but her own pair of skates does Mally grind right across the rings sharp edge, the sparks that result from grinding along the ring glowing a starry light as she slides right across the planets ring and leaps back out towards the spacial angel before them.

With the angel’s foes on the approach, Mall’s center eyes closes for a moment as its wings close inward; opening its pupil wide once more and flapping their wings to send out a visible pulse of cosmic radiation, a wave which reduces all that stand in its path. The threat of this radioactive wave ready to tear them all asunder, the pair of angels streak right past their orange sister and prepare to disperses the oncoming assault; the blue boy out of them shouting how: “Still got some life left in me!” Placing the palms of his hands upon his very chest, Tore draws forth colorful batch of power from the depths of his very body and unleashes it all into an intense beam of rainbows; the colorful ray cutting straight through half of the radiation. “That’s the spirit. Lets show this cosmic bastard why you shouldn’t piss us off!” Roy cheers on as he sharpen his onyx arm into the shape of a giant blade. With but a couple of swipes does the violet angel manage to slice straight through what remains of the radioactive wave; finally clearing the way and letting their sister streak right by.

With nothing else standing in the way towards the angelic horror, the orange skater starts to tie the string of her glowing grapple yo right around the neck of her dark matter infused weapon; commanding the very material to transform the hockey stick into a twinblade, one with a deadly swords protruding out from each end. With both her gadget and weapon tied together, Mally flings both of them out as she starts to twirl through the space before the holy horror; Mall themselves attempting to prevent the girls oncoming assault by stretching the space between them. In a ball of brilliant life and scorning rage, tied together by blood do the weapons streak straight through the artificially lengthened space and strike the angel straight into the center of its middle eye; pieces of the cosmic holy being breaking apart as he reels back from the overwhelming impact.

Shortly after the blow does Mall let out a holy screech that pushes back all that near; the skater that inflicted the blow sent flying back out to the depths of the cosmo’s behind her. Before she could be cast away into the endless infinite, a streak of white and blue zooms out and swipes the girl back toward their purple brothers side; Tore stopping right beside his purple brother just in time to witness their foe arise back up from the blow; its flapping wings distorting the very space it dwells within. “Didn’t like that too much, did it? Practically throwing a shit fit, tearing up space like a little tike shredding paper here.” Roy belittles. “If Mall doesn’t like this, then he sure ain’t gonna appreciate the rest of what we got to give him.” his blue brother expresses with clear vitriol in his voice.

Among venturing through the warpgate’s inner tunnels of numerous running veins and pulsing flesh, Vivi, Ryan, Melvin, Hank and Alex all finally come to the very core and behold the Orphan in all of its shinning glory; the child hovering in the middle glimmering brightly midst the rings that surround it. “Holy shit, man. You guys even consider for a sec the whole uncomfortable subtexts of this sorta bull might be; like fucking step back and think for a sec here. It’s all the theories with the final boss of Earthbound all over again about Giygas being a-” Before the young teen could finish his implicate thoughts over what they were about to do, the rest of them all immediately charge out towards the holy core all at once; Ryan himself letting out a small sigh before he runs after and proclaiming: “Sure whatev, just-...We don’t even have a plan yet!”

Hovering into the air before the shimmering holy core, Hank taps a few buttons along his armrest to unleash an entire cluster of missiles constructed from soup cans from his wheelchair compartments; a holy light beginning to glow out from the dozens of eyes that decorate the Orphans revolving rings as the missiles approach. In but a matter of seconds do all the eyes fire out a salvo of bright rays that curve through the air, perfectly striking out every single makeshift missile hank had launched out; reducing their aluminum to smoldering slag.

Among all the resulting smoke from the failed missile strike, Alex rockets upwards towards the very core of the Orphan in an attempting a beeline assault from below, transforming his arms into deadly weapons as he nears the outer rings. With the demon approaching, the outer rim starts to violently spin about as the light from its numerous eyes starts to glisten once more; the holy glow that glimmers from its pupils soon  transforms into a solid shape and smacks Alex aside. Latched upon the veins hanging overhead, Vivian then tries to her luck in bombing down towards the core from below; the ring spinning in the opposite direction to swing its objects of solid light out to the skull girl and smack her aside like the demon.

Lunging out in the middle like a tried and true arrow, Melvin swipes through the ring’s solid light and reduces their glow to glittering shards that dissipate in the air; slipping by the rest of the rings and ready to strike the very core. Alas is the young man’s attempts thwarted when the Orphan lets out a Holy outcry similar to a crying infant; a wave of brilliant light that launches Melvin away.

While Hank simply hovers back to Ryan’s side, the other three roughly crash right before the two; Ryan taking in a little breath before asking the trio: “So, you guys wanna try charging out like a buncha eager jackass’s or do you wanna actually formulate a plan here?” “Fuck off!” all three of them shout.

Back up above do Tore, Mally, and Roy continue to thwart off the spacial assault thrown to them by the cosmic holy horror hovering before them; all three watching closely as the angelic being commands every star that occupies the cosmo’s around them to gather before him. Every single glistening star is collected out from the depths of space and is gathered before Mall, their numerous gaseous light collaborating together into an intensely bright and powerfully hot sun; this freshly born star’s very surface blistering hot enough to spew out flames from its very surface that all rocket towards the trio. The three split apart as the bouts of searing flames near them all, nearly avoiding being cooked alive as the purple merc among them states that: “Think it’s my turn to take a shot at this celestial asshole.”

Declaring such does the violet angel take off after the celestial entity set behind the very sun it had conjured, all while the sun’s surface continue to spew out dozens upon dozens of solar flares across its surface; both his brother and sister watching his back as he starts to move in. As some of these searing pillars of flame start to streak out towards the purple merc, his indigo brother swoops straight in with a lively power held in his hands; Tore casting out a colorful wave from the palm of his hand to disperse the approaching flare. When this beam of rainbows streaks right along his side, Roy feels something else irradiate from beneath this very wave; the violet angel peering back towards its very caster to sense that feeling coming from his very own brother. Set upon his face as clear as day could Roy see the seething anger painted across Tore’s face, showing the new found contempt he feels nowhere near being as much as what wells within the depths of his very soul; such a righteous fury making his new arm of dark black quiver.

Amidst staring out to his blue brother do numerous more flames come spewing out from the surface of the small sun; the fiery inferno’s streaking across space and towards the approaching violet angel. Just moments before these approaching fires could envelope the purple merc in their blazing fury, Roy feels a strand of steel string envelope his very hips and peers aside to see his orange sister pulling herself out towards him with freshly repaired hockey stick in hand; Mally swinging herself out before her violet brother to confront the approaching flame. Brandishing her trusty weapon does the orange skater start to rapidly twirl it out against the flames as the dark matter keeping it together widens out into giant fans, the black fan’s massive width quelling the solar flames away and reducing them to meager embers.

While his sis swings right out from his very flight path, the purple merc finds her donning a similar glare akin to their blue brothers anger; a potent rage directed towards their spacial foe. Tore looked up to this guy and in the end just wound up stabbing him in the back. And Mally here risked life and limb just to track him down and we come up to see all this shit go down. Ain’t hard to see why they’re so mad at this bastard. Sympathizing with his siblings unkempt fury, Roy feels his newfound limb begin to violently pulse upon these feeling of justified anger, the merc looking to the quivering arm as a sinister smile stretches across his cheeks.

Upon nearing the scorching sunlight, the violet angel thrusts his dark arm straight out towards the blistering bright star; the dark matter that makes up his hand growing to exponential size while its very finger start to twist and contort themselves into a recognizable shape. The cosmic angel’s sparkling pupil shrink when beholding the mass of darkness spread before him and very sun he had conjured; the mass of dark matter set before the holy being expanding into the leviathan sized head of a pitch black wolf. Mall left with only a few seconds before both them and the star they had conjured are devoured in a single bite, the sun vanishes underneath the black canines maw as the light that came from the sun is snuffed out; darkness starts to settle within the very space they all dwell.

Just meager seconds after this black void settles do pillars of pure light start to pierce straight through the head of the dark wolf and seep out into the surrounding cosmo’s; the wolf eventually exploding in a big bang as waves of galaxies flow out from the blast. From this brilliant supernova does the purple angel’s arm retract back to his side, all while he hand his siblings peering out beyond all the cosmic colors to behold the cosmic angel hovering in the center of it all; all of them noticing the numerous wings that the holy being had boasted reduced in numbers. “Doesn’t seem like this galactic jackass can take much more.” the merc claims. “We just need to get one more clean hit in and this angel will be down for the count.” the orange skater suggests. “I’m the guy that started this whole mess, seems only fitting that I go in and end it.” the blue boy offers.

Down within the inner workings of the warp gate does Ryan continue to watch his four comrades continue to fruitlessly attempt to break through the Orphan’s defenses, watching as Vivian keeps recklessly charging out, Alex’s constantly shifting and morphing weapon limbs, Melvin’s leaps and bounds along every angel he could take; and Hank trying numerous weapons and gadgets; all of it deflected, smacked aside, and pushed back by the Orphan’s might. Thrust straight into the wall of veins and flesh, the demon gazes over to the core that they assaulted to find the results of their attack having done less than little; the rings spinning along the Orphan continuing to glow as bright as the heavens. Thought the frustration beginning to build within him over this seemingly unbreakable wall, all that anger starts to subside when he eyes the skull girl pulling her severed bone arm right out from between a set of veins; Vivi jerking her arm back to finally uproot her limb and tear through the squishy flesh. From within these torn veins does a strange liquid spurt out and spill onto the floor, Alex following where the torn veins would lead to and sees this fleshy pipe stretching to the center of the chamber; it and other pipes protruding up to the Orphan right above.

Its upon this very discovery that the orange haired demon starts piecing together a plausible strategy within his black horned head, first calling Vivi’s attention with: “Hey, you withered skeletal annoyance, I need your attention for a moment!” The demon’s call proves incredibly effective at drawing the huffed half skeleton straight to him, Vivian getting all up in Alex’s face as she growl: “The hell’s yo problem, ya fuckin whole horned cock head!?” Pushing the skull girl away, Alex then points out towards the walls of the chamber and asks her: “Please direct what little span of attention you can wield and peer out to the numerous pipes and veins that decorate these walls.” Gazing out to the very veins the demon points towards, Vivi responds back with: “Yeah, pretty damn disturbing if ya ask me. The hell’s your point?” “From what I’ve been informed, you’re at least decently competent with a scythe.” “Who the hell told ya that shit!?” she blurts out. “I need you to travel along these very walls cutting these numerous veins that pump out precious juices straight into the core. Like that, we can effectively cut off our foe’s support.” “Ya got two limbs that can turn into fucking swords! The hell’s stopping you from doing it?” “Because I am in the midst of formulating a plan. One that might just give us what we need to stop our encroaching doom, and I unfortunately need all of your cooperation.” Hearing the demon’s words, Vivian peers back over to all the fleshy pipes that the walls of the core’s chamber as a blend of worry and doubt washes over her. The girl takes a moment to take in a calming breath before she claims that she’s: “Fine. On it.”

Midst racing towards the very edge of the chamber, the skull girl stretches her boney limb out into the air while focusing on the very tool that she loathes; the very same scythe that proves as a reminder of her fate. In a flash of bright lime green does the scythe of death materialize in Vivian’s hand, the skull girl clutching its neck with both hands as she approaches the numerous precious veins that lend the core its very life. While racing across the side of the chamber, Vivi flails the blade of her scythe against the numerous veins that decorate its very walls; bouts of ooze bursting out from underneath their cut flesh. While watching his skeletal ally rend apart the dozens of fleshy pipes set across the walls, Alex finds all the color that flows through these veins fade away and drain the core connected to them of precious support; the light that shines from the Orphan slowly starting to dim.

The piece of his plan falling into place, Alex peers over to the wayside and finds both Hank and Ryan in the middle of reloading their crudely made weaponry; the demon appearing to their side in a puff of smoke as Ryan questions: “The hell is Vivi doing flailing her scythe around like a mad woman? Practically gonna lose more than an arm doing that.” “Your foul tempered pal there is busy weakening the core’s support in accordance to my strategy. I’m sure whatever she loses can be firmly glued back on.” the demon answers. “Ooh, a strategy? Just what sort of plan ya got cookin up in that horned head of yours?” Hank gleefully questions. “The next step of my brilliant strategy is to halt the numerous rings from rapidly twirling about in order to gauge closer to the core. Hmm...Alas, I don’t imagine much in here that could serve to slow their rotation.” “I think I got something here that might cover that.” the wheelchair bound genius mentions while reaching down into a compartment along the side of his chair.

From the pocket of his chair does Hank pull out a couple guns crudely made from discarded plastic and splintered wood; both Alex and Ryan gazing upon these presented weapons with their own brand of “are you fucking kidding me here”, the demon among them questioning: “What manner of shoddy craftsmanship is this?” “Am I glad you asked. These babies are specifically designed in mind to fire out a special quick drying adhesive I use when constructing any aircraft’s. This stuff’s seriously strong enough to take going through a raging twister and coming out whole.” “Where did you get something that strong?” Ryan follows. “Something that me and I couple of my workshop pal’s cooked up out of old chewed up gum, tree sap, glue, rhino snot and-” “Don’t care. Just use it to keep that things rings from moving another inch.” Alex demands out of them both.

Upon this very request does Hank toss Ryan one of these specially made weapons as both of them race out towards the sides of the chamber, the chairbound genius gliding out towards the left as his parnter jumps out to the right. When along both of the glowing Orphan’s sides, the two boys pull the triggers of their crude guns for their barrels to spurt out globs of white glue straight out towards the core’s outer rings; the child hovering in the middle letting out an irritated outcry as some of the adhesive lands straight into the ring’s eyes.

Midst partaking in the truly bizarre site of both boys constantly firing out globs of glue out to the angelic monstrosity set before him, Melvin is left in a sort of strange disbelief from this site laying out before him; the young man lightly shaking his head as he mentions: “I...I don’t think anything could’ve prepared me for the sort of shit I’d see today.” “Then I sure hope you’re prepared to follow my lead in the finale.” Alex demands as he glides right by, Melvin growls over while he joins the demon’s side; both of them lunge forth towards the shinning Orphan at breakneck speeds.

Out from along the reaches of the freshly created cosmos, Tore and his siblings start racing straight out towards the cosmic angel; discussing on how they’ll deliver the final blow as Roy ask: “Both of us threw all we got at this galactic son of a bitch,  how ya wanna end things bro?” “I’m just about tapped out myself here. You guys don’t mind given me a bit of a boost here, do ya?” the indigo angel asks. “Whateva ya need, man.” “Yeah, big bro. What ya need us to do.” Mally agrees. “Okay, ju-just don’t panic if it feels like your dying. I promise I’m just gonna take a little here.” “Wait, little of wha-”

Before the merc could question what exactly his blue brother was on about, Tore slaps his palms along his sibs sides; the two feeling rather woozy as the indigo angel extracts some of their life forced from the depths of their bodies. “Whoo. Holy...What the heck was that all about?” the orange skater questions, shaking off her inherent dizziness. “It’ll be the parts of you guys I need to end this.” Tore proclaims, holding both bits of life he had collected from his siblings in both hands. In a single moment does he shove essence of their very souls straight through his chest, their life force surging through his body and melding with his with his own to create a burst of raw power; a rainbow of colors surging through his entire body. “Ready to go!”

With the very life force given to him by his siblings held withing his very body, Tore zooms out towards their celestial foe with both his brother and sister by his side; Mall twisting the very space before him to hinder their assault forth and creating countless wormholes around them. Though Tore manages to evade the reach of these numerous wormholes, both of the indigo angel’s siblings unfortunately fall through a pair of portals that swallow them hole; the two of them spat out far behind their blue bro. “Ain’t gonna get us outta the game that easily!” Mally warns as both her and Roy casting forth her grapple yo and his new dark arm respectively, spearheading through the cosmo’s to reach their blue brother. When the limb and gadget both wrap themselves around the indigo angel’s legs, the two of them shoot throughout the depths of space and start to close the gap between them.

From what remained of the Kybr’s true form, Mall expels out entire galaxies from the cosmos held within his numerous fractured wings; their starry edges their very edges cutting through the very space they dwell in like a galactic saw blade. As the indigo angel weaves around the solar systems that are launches his way, his siblings latched behind him smack away their very stars as they get closer and closer to their blue bro; each galaxy breaking into nothing but stardust open being struck. With just a few moments away from collision, the cosmic angel unfurls their wings and sends forth one last leviathan galaxy out in an effort and thwart their assault once and for; Mall’s blue ward left in awe from the sheer size of the sent out solar system that hurdles his way. Just when facing the end of his final assault upon his former master, the blue boy witnesses siblings fling themselves out from behind him and towards the oncoming galaxy; both the orange skater and purple merc using the dark weapons in their hands to slice the very stars into shards and giving their brother the way forth. “All you Tore!” “Go for it!” Both his loyal brother and sister having given him a way forth towards the end, Tore speeds out towards their celestial foe as fast as he could; packing all the power he had gathered into his fist as he nears Mall’s center eye.

Within the core chamber, all of the glue that both Hank and Ryan had shot out in their pinching barrage starts to stick to the Orphans spiraling golden rings and keeps them from moving another inch; their ammunition running out before they could shoot out to the last few rings closest to the core. “I’m out.” Ryan warns. “Me too.” Hank adds. “Shit, now what?” Melvin questions. “We keep moving!” Alex orders. The demon determined to finish the final step of his strategy, both Melvin and Alex lunge forth towards the glistening child like core.

Seeing the core itself unleash a shining ray out towards them both, the young man zips out ahead and powers straight through the burning light to reach towards inner rings protecting the Orphan. Upon landing right above the core does Melvin take an iron vice grip onto the few remaining golden rings, feeling their incredible holy light burn his demonic infused hands as he keeps the halo’s from moving another inch. “Finish it!” he screams out. Requested out from his partner, the orange demon prepares to deal the ending attack to the open infant shaped core among the still halos; Alex morphing his arm into a sharp tipped pike as he nears towards the end.

Putting every single bit of power he had left to muster behind his swing, Tore thrusts his colorfully glowing fist straight through his former mentor’s center eye; Mall letting out a loud, ear piercing shriek as the life his student had gathered breaks apart his celestial body.

Once before the child shaped core of the warp gate, Alex thrusts his transformed pike limb straight through its glowing body; the core letting out a loud outcry as the darkness from the demon’s arm spreads within and fractures it to pieces.

Upon both of these finishing blows are the space around them all engulfed in a brilliant light; blinding all who behold its majestic glory as both the cosmic angel and holy child’s forms break apart. This awesome heavenly light slowly begins to fade away from view, away from this very existence only for all to dim into darkness once more.

An exhausted groan escapes him as Tore starts to open his eyes, obtaining the first lovely view of the morning sun arising out from the cloudy sea; the blue boy pushing himself right off the golden floor and stands upon his very knee’s. Peering over does he discover not just his family that had aided him in his ultimate hour of need, but all their friends as well; all of them lying along the golden spire floor unconscious; the early sunlight shinning its warming glow upon their sides. We’re back...Does that mean…? His vision peers skywards towards the golden halo hanging above them all, the picture of the other dimension held within its very rim was no more. The boy’s head droops down to the golden floor as an incredible relief washes over the indigo angel; certain this entire ordeal, the threat of the Kybr, was stopped just in time. His eyes arising from his own relieved reflection along the golden floor, a forlorn stare spread across his face as a peculiar site catches the blue boy’s attention; the blue boy finally standing on his own two feet and stumbling over towards such.

When awakening from their exhausted stupor, each one of them find themselves laying outside the spire and take in the welcoming site of the morning sky; the fresh twilight breeze all the more relaxing after the turmoil they had endured. While taking in the wonderful site along with their well earned victory, Mally suddenly feels somebody tackle her back down upon the ground; peering over her shoulder upon falling to discover her skeletal pal giving her a tight hug as she shout: “Hell yeah, bitch! That whole fucking show was insane! Still can’t believe all of us stopped shit from hitting the fan here!” “You’re telling me. I didn’t think we were gonna make it. After all the crazy stuff we all went through, It’s hard to believe we stopped all this from going off.” the orange skater admits.

During their little celebration, Hank rolls along over alongside Ryan as the wheelbound genius takes in a much more intrigued look to their surroundings and claims that: “Now that we stopped all of heavenly hell from busting loose. I wanna take a real good look at the kind of technology that makes this big old tower tick. I wonder how many gadgets and gizmo’s I could make from salvaging its parts?” “Seriously hope yer not planning on using any of the nasty shit we saw down there; cause I ain’t touching any of that stuff as long as I live. The way that all that squishy meat felt under his feet is something I might haveta blow money at just going to therapy for.”

“From the way things sound, seems like all of you did a bang ass job without us. Bravo there, kids.” Roy applauds to both Alex and Melvin, who stand before him. “Well, it was mostly thanks to my strategic prowess that the day had been won. No need to thank me.” the demon boasts aloud. “Motherfuc- So all the effort we put in to stop all that from going down wasn’t that important, that what you mouthin off over?” Melvin barks. “Please. As if that’s what I mean’t.  All of the components around me were what made my vision possible...Though I doubt any of you would come up with anything half as brilliant.” Its in this last comment that the shots had been fired and horses take off, both of them going off on each other like set off C4 explosives of screaming complaints and insults; Roy shaking his head as he peers away from the two and out towards his blue brother.

Midst watching her friends talk to themselves over what all they went through, Mally see’s her purple brother venturing over to Tore’s side; the orange girl parting from her friends to join Roy in checking on him. The two witness find their blue brother kneeling down onto the golden floor, noticing a strange light emanating from the blue boy’s front. “Tore, you okay there?” his violet sibling worries. “...I’m fine.” he answers with clear melancholy, keeps his eyes to the light underneath. Peeking out from behind him do both Roy and Mally find their blue brother staring down upon a glint of light that hover’s above the palms of his hands; the sparkling glow glimmering like the very cosmo’s. “Is that who we think it is?” Mally questions. “All that’s left of him. And all that might ever be.” the indigo angel answers, rising upon his own two feet.

Continuing to gaze down to the cosmic glow left within his hands, Tore walks out towards the wayside of the golden spire; friends and family alike gazing to him as he walks towards the very edge. “Tore.” Along his very back do the boy’s wings of white protrude outwards, the indigo angel finally leaping off the very edge of the spire; all of them venturing to the edge to watch as the boy hovers down towards the sea of clouds below. “He might have to think some things through, Mal. Think we should just give him some time to himself.” his purple brother suggests.

His saddening gaze is kept upon the reminisce of his former master that now rests upon his gentle palm, Tore continues to hover down to the fluff below with the golden spire at his back; the light of Mall’s remains shinning as they passing down through the clouds. The light of the morning sun continues to arise from the cloud horizon as he slowly descends downward; its twilight glow reflecting off the edge of the shinning golden spire. Alas can its light not overshadow the bit of the cosmo’s that rests within the angel’s hand; its glow reflecting within Tore’s own eyes. Finally does he descend down through the sea of clouds, the cosmic glow in his hands shinning past the numerous clouds before he passes down through the bottom. A flock of countless tropical birds rises right past the blue boy; Tore keeping his eyes glued to the glint of his former mentor as tears start to drizzle out down towards tropical jungle down below.

Among his lamenting descent does Tore gently land down onto the jungle floor along the base of the spire, the grass beneath his feet parting as he touches down on the earth. Tore parts his palms out from beneath what remained of his once beloved mentor, letting the last bits of the cosmic angel flutter down towards the ground and disappearing into the earth. A small snivel escapes as the indigo angel wipes away the tears that flow down from his very cheeks; the blue boy gaze out to the vast jungle set before him to behold the flora and fauna alike that bask in the welcome morning sun together. It’s a new day. A fresh start. Everyone wakes up to the lives they walk. I just wished you could’ve shared in it all with me...Thanks Mall, for showing me how much its all worth. A small breath leaves his lunges before he begin to walk away from the golden Kybr spire set behind him; his wings glistening with bits of colorful glitter trailing behind as he walks forth into the unknown beyond. Along the ground he left behind does a lone plant start to sprout out from the earth; the small stalk of a flower who’s petals show the depths of the cosmos.

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Words cannot simply describe how long I've been waiting to write this whole arc out. From its strange beginning all the way up to its dynamic and bittersweet conclusion. I've seriously been planning to make something like this along the lines of 2 years, but knew I had to simply pace myself and wait for the moment to do so. That arc of one of the main characters finding a rolemodol, but having them be someone that they would have to stop in the end. To those of you that have actually stuck around this long, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to read the sort of stuff that comes out from my brain. Writing this redo these past couple years have shown me ways to improve my writing techniques for the future, and I have a bunch of amazing characters created by so many others to thank for it. Thank you for letting me mold these stories.

[princesscallyie]

About the chart, it says that Ryu has wind powers and that Rai has fire powers. To be honest, I thought that it would be the other way around based off of personality. Seeing how Ryu is energetic and like playing sports and Rai is the kind of cool and calm, but if you mess with him or his loved one, he'll kick your ass.

Sometimes it’s interesting to switch it up from the expected ;)

[lillaxtrigger]

Faded land: Chapter 13

In the dead of night, the scientist is quite literally shaken from her slumber, the quake jolting her and her bear awake. Around her, she bares witness to cracks forming in the crumbling rocky walls and ceiling. Screaming penetrates through the cracks of her door and reaches the scientist ears. A glance outside showed the entire dormitory stirred in a mass panic, people rushing throughout the hall in their hysteria. Among the mass fright, the terrible shouts of the people echo through the corridors. "Everybody run!" "It's coming down! It's all coming down! "We're screwed!" "The stalactite won't hold much longer!" These shrieks of fear makes Clara come to the conclusion that the stalactite they all dwell in is on the verge of descending in the lake depths below. If that's the case, it might be best to make her escape as soon as possible, before the whole place comes down. "Angelo! Come on! We gotta move!" Upon her masters call, Angelo rises from her slumber and shakes off her initial drowse. Hoping aboard her mutant steed, both woman and bear take off down the dorm halls.

Her haste through the halls continuing, she finds some of the passing people latching themselves upon Angelo's legs, the added weight slowing the steed down. "Get off!" Clara demands from them. "Hell no!" "Get us outta here!" Hearing their refusal to bail, the scientist steers her bear spider towards the wall,  their ascension up to the roof of the hallway making their unwanted passengers slip back down towards the floor. Hate to leave people in the dust like this, but the way things are going, none of them mightbe able to make their escape if those two stuck around.

Around the stairs do Clara and Angelo ride, their descent down eventually leading into the cafeteria. Waves of panicking people struggle to make their way through the dining hall, the crowd attempting to pour themselves out, the exit proving to small for everyone to traverse through at once. Gotta find a way to unclog the way and get past, else their hopes of fleeing from their watery grave may be dashed. The scientist ponders upon what to do in the given situation, her early awaking alongside the ensuing chaos making it quite difficult to think. Come on brain, work with me. Need to think of a way outta this mess. Right on the prospect of just gunning for the exit and hoping for the best, an idea finally pops in her noggin.

With little hesitance, she drives Angelo through the roof of the cafeteria, the people below witnessing her seamless traversal and attempting to reach for the duo in vain. Closing in upon the cramped exit, the scientist gives her steed an old pat, Angelo launching her sticky webbing towards the nearest table decorating the dining hall floor. The ursa then jerks the table away, making the top fly across the cafeteria towards the exit. The people seeing the table incoming frantically stand aside to evade the approaching piece of dining ware. The table slams itself upon the exit, blocking countless others from making their escape. Angry discourse floats through the air of the hall, most of it directed towards the duo who halted their exit. Both Clara and Angelo approach the blockade from the top, the ursa pushing the table down to create for their escape. The opposing populous backs away upon the tops push backwards, the scientist and her steed slipping through the cracks created. Once the table is fully shoved aside, the people continue their panicking abscond from the dining hall.

Glad to have gotten that mess outta the way without any casualties. The exit shouldn't be too far now. That thought on her mind, Angelo suddenly comes to a grinding halt. "What's the matter girl? Why'd you stop?" Her question is soon answer with a glance ahead, another crowd stuffing themselves down the hall. Oh come. Not this again. These people need an evacuation protocol. Or at least make the doors wider. Hang on a minute. This is supposed to be the exit outside, isn't it? Those doors are already as wide as can be. So what's the hold up here?

A trip through the roof hovering over the masses reveal the exit to the outside to be obstructed by large chunk of rocks. Must have had a cave in during the quake. Clara looks above as the people below attempt to remove the blockade themselves, pulling and pushing with all their might. It doesn't matter how hard all of them struggle to move the earth, the rock blockade fails to budge even an inch. Of course a rocky wall of that size ain't gonna move that easily, lucky to even get a single rock out. Still has to be some way to take down all that rock swiftly. Once more, she wonders upon how to progress in her escape, mere feet away from freedom. Her brain more active this time around, she quickly comes up with a solution.

The people below continue their struggle against the stone blockade, a warning reaching them from above. "Look out below!" Gazing upwards, they finds Clara and her mutated steed making their way down towards the ground. The people back away upon their climb down, Angelo's growling giving them the clear message to stay back. The area having clear, the scientist dismounts to inspect the cave in more closely. She notices the rocks blocking their escape to be quite big, but the blockade itself proving quite fragile. Pulling out the right rock might make the whole thing crumble. The question presented being which rock it is. A quick scan through the wall showed the rock at the bottom the least stable. Of course, much like the logs in a janga tower, taking out the bottom piece should make the entire thing tumble. Calling upon her bear spider, she points towards the stone holding the blockade in place. "Angelo, here!" Upon her masters command, the ursa arachnid spurts from her backside her silk webbing, the string latching onto the stone surface. Once the silk proved to be firmly attached, her chimeric steed begin to pull. Even with all her might, the rock shows itself not to budge even an inch. With very little options left, Clara joins her steeds struggle, grabbing hold of the silky string and pulling with everything she had. But even with her masters help, Angelo still couldn't get the rocks to tumble. Come on! Why won't this stupid thing just fall already!?

Feeling the pull of the silk rope easing, the scientist opens her eyes to watch the people around her pitching in with the effort. With everyone's combined strength, the wall begins to weaken its hold. Just a few more inches and it should collapse.

A few nudges outward and the stone barrier blocking their escape finally crumbles, the top of the doorway leaking out the lime green light of their city. Not a moment is wasted for the masses to start flooding out the door, Clara hoping aboard her steed to join their escape.

At long last, they escape from the stalactite; Clara looking back to find that the rocky structure all of them once rested within to be indeed threatening to fall. Some attempt to help as many people as possible escape to the outside, others desperate to keep the crumbling rock from plummeting as long as possible via ropes and steel wielding. Noticing Trexy on a bridge along the side, she quickly scuttles across the unstable stone.

The scientist reaches the chief in the midst of evacuating the people, a question passing through her lips. "What's going on!? Why is the stalactite coming down?" "Damn beast is makin another uproar! Threatening to make stalactites around here take the plunge. Got everyone around here spread out on damage control. With not much power to work with, I'm standing on thin ice here. Care to back me up!?" "No problem. What do you need me to do?" this rock right here's eventually gonna break off the roof and plummet down into the lake. Need you to keep it from falling as long as ya can so I can get everyone out. Sound like a plan?" "On it. Let's move Angelo!" Upon those orders, the scientist steers her steed up towards the roof of the caverns as Trexy rushes within the crumbling dwellings.

Climbing up towards the cracking roof of the stalactite, the lime glow of the radioactive ceiling of the cavern illuminates on intensely the closer they get towards the top. Best not to get to close to such deadly deposit, both of them feeling the raw intensity of the luminescent waste upon its approach. Luckily, the most damage to the rock is located several yards down from the nuclear roof of the caverns. To that end, she immediately gets to work, weaving Angelo's sticky string across the rock like sowing the arm of a sweater back in place. It ain't exactly a clean fix, but it gets the job done. Just gotta hold long enough while her host works on the inside.

Within the crumbling stalactite, Trexy reaches the tiny exit of the cafeteria, people struggling to squeeze their way out of the dining hall. "All y'all get back, folks. This might get kinda rough." she warns them, brandishing her wrench. With but a swing of her mighty tool, the chief widens the proportions of the doorway, giving the people on the other side plenty of room to escape Finished with her swift remodeling, she points towards the direction of the exit, commanding every one of them to: "Get moving!" Trexy watches as the stream of dorm dwellers flood out from the cafeteria and towards their only salvation from their watery demise. Might be best to have a talk with the floor planner once all this is said and done.

Gazing down from below, Clara witnesses more and more people flood out from the unstable stalactite. Seems like Trexy is working on overdrive in there. Better do the same so as to not be let in the dust. Across the rock her bear spider goes, a trail of silk left behind in their dashing wake across the crack, until they get a single loop in. Best circle around the rock a couple more times to be on the safe side.

Stopping upon the doors of a dorm, Trexy wastes no time in kicking the entrance down. Awaiting beyond the door way was a pile of rubble having fallen from the ceiling, a quite moan coming from the rock. Sounds like some poor soul got themselves trapped under the crumbling ceiling. Swiftly, the chief pushes the fallen stone aside, revealing a harmed man beneath the rubble. She quickly snatches the injured individual, cradling him in her arms and whisking him out from his destroyed dorm on the cusp of its collapse.

Venturing around the stalactite and Angelo already proves to be on the cusp of exhaustion. The scientist hearing her ursa arachnids weary breath, she wonders why her steed was so tired so quickly. They only got two loops through the rock and the poor girl looks like shes almost down for the count. A look back towards the webbing they left in their wake show it to be holding quite well, but knows it won't be long before the silk snaps. Clara directs her spidery steed back upon the steel bridge below, Angelo flopping down as soon as she lands on stable ground.

Trexy soon makes her way within the seemingly empty entry hall of the dormitory, the decor having already having been destroyed in the ensuing chaos. The chief scans her surroundings, wondering if anyone was still sticking around. Its not until she follows an echoing moan does she find someone quite literally hanging along the support beams. Oh come on. How in the- How can someone-...How did she even...Nevermind. Although confused, she gives little hesitance in saving the woman, gaining a running start across the wall. After a swift wall jump, Trexy hooks her wrench onto the beam and makes her way towards the citizen in need of rescue. A passing quake almost makes her plummet down towards the marble floor, but she quickly manages to grasp the beam and save herself from her tumble. Looks like this place doesn't have much time before it comes down, and there still some people left to evacuate. Gotta hurry. Like a chimpanzee traversing a sizable branch, Trexy swings across the beam towards the victim of the quaking chaos. Snatching the woman away from her hanging prison, both drop down onto the floor below. But it might be too late, for an even bigger quake reverberates through the rock.

Though Angelo's webbing has held on for as long as it could, alas the mighty stone structure finally begins to plummet. The steel bridge the scientist had been standing upon breaks due to the weight of the rock, Clara and Angelo escaping by mere inches. Gazing below the broken bridge, she watches in horror as people pour out from the exits of the stalactite as it descends, realizing their doomed fate. Among them, she finds Trexy jumping from one of the windows, reaching for the far off bridge. Clara acts fast and swiftly pats the back of her worn steed, Angelo shooting out one more line of webbing from her backside towards the plummeting chief below.

The silk rapidly rockets downward, the string snags the chiefs arm in the middle of her fall. Helpless in her dangling dilemma, the leader of New Erie is forced to watch as the dormitory splashes into the lake waters below along with her people, still able to make them out as they swim for dear life. The gesture was little more then a temporary cling to life however, as the leviathan quickly swipes whoever was left into its gaping maw. A horrified glare left upon her face, she is hoisted up towards the safety of the steel bridge above.

Both Trexy and who she rescued are flopped onto the broken bridge, the people surrounding her giving their chief space as she rises from the steel. The scientist approaching out from the crowd, she relays but a simple question to her. "Are you okay?" For a moment, everyone grew silent, awaiting what answer would potentially burst from their leader. At last, her response takes form. "I couldn't do it..." "Wh-...what?..." "I couldn't save them all! Those people that were left in there met their watery graves because of me! If I didn't decide to spread out the power and make the carts go outta order, we could have gotten more rescue crew here in time!" The scientist attempts to calm the self deprecation's of the subterranean leader with "Just calm down, Trexy. Look at how many people you did rescue. Just asked anyone." "I should have saved everyone!...I should have everybody." Parting from the crowd, begins her walk towards the broken end of the bridge. "What kinda chief am I if I can protect my own folks?" Upon this question, she stares down into the dark blue depths of the lake below, watching as the monster that has terrorized them swims merrily through its water. Seeing the leviathan the brought her and her people so much death and despair paddling about without a care in the world was a site that sent Trexy over the edge. She has about had it with this beast.

"Enough is enough." With a determined glare in her eye, she marches through the crowd and across the bridge, her stomps sound off against the steel. A worried gaze in hers, Clara stares towards the chief as she makes her way through.

Within the shaken confines of the laboratory, every mechanic and scientist was reeling back from the recent quake. "Everybody okay?" one of them asks. "Yeah." "Think so." "Kinda hit my head on something." "Still feel kinda dizzy." A relived sigh escaping from a mechanics lungs, he rises from the marble floor. "Least we didn't take the plunge this this time. I tell ya, I don't think I can handle anymore surprises today."

A boom slam echoes through the lab, everyone jumping upon the sudden bang. Looking upon the doorway, all of them find their leader walking within, an impatient glare drawn on her face. "Get ready boys! I want the sub droppin down in the water, ASAP!" Such a request sends waves of shock and disbelief through out the mob of construction workers and researchers. "Are you serious!?" "You want it to take water now!?" "She can't be asking something like that!?" "Testings not even finished yet!" One nervous scientist begins to take his slow approach towards his chief, suggesting to her: "Uh, Miss-Miss Trexy...With all due respect, we can't possibly take sub out now. There's still so many variable that have yet to be fully calculated. We just need a little bit more time to-" "We ain't got anymore time! Who knows when the beast below us will throw another one of its shit fits and send anymore of the city's stalactite towards the briny deep! Prepare the sub to be transported to the lower level of sector 7. That's an order!" "Ye-Yes ma'am!"

From the corner of the open door, Clara peeks out as the scientist and mechanics within scatter upon their bosses sudden order. Sound like things are taking a sudden turn towards the avenue of intense. Our scientist still in a wonder if she should help any further. Although Trexy is taking most of the self blame, Clara isn't without her own doubts. She wasn't much help in prolonging the dorms plummet down the briny depths of the lake below. Maybe could have given Angelo some more to snack on before hitting the hay, then she might have had the strength left to go around at least a few more loops around. To that end, she tempts to leave so she may not meddle in the affairs of these people no more.

On the cusp of making her departure, a southern draw halts her leaves. "So, you on board or what?" A turn towards her behind and our scientist spots her host staring from the door way. "Huh?" "The sub. Guys in their mention how you helped them balance the power during testin. Could really use something like that during our upcomin skirmish with the serpent. "Uh...I-I don't know. I still have a ton of things on my mind. Gotta check on Angelo and she if she doing alright." With a disappointed sigh leaving her lungs, Trexy begins her walk down the hall as she lets Clara know that: "I understand. Sub'll drop down in an hour. We'll be on the bottom floor if ya change yer mind."

Watching as her host casually marches through the halls, Clara wonder upon the crossroad set before her. On one hand, these people might serve a better chance in beating that beast with her behind the panel. And though the potential rewards for her assistants may prove enticing, she is uncertain of what byproducts could result from her involvement. The way to the lake above my prove dangerous considering what may lie ahead down that avenue. The thoughts of the child that met its bitter end by the hands of her meddling still fresh in her mind. On the other, time is of the upmost importance. The longer she stays in assisting these people in their plight could be another moment wasted in crossing the border and tracking down Arthur. Who knows what he might be doing beyond the Canadian homeland, or worse, what they could be doing to him. Clara attempts to weigh the pros and cons of the decisions set before her, wondering what rewards she should decide to reap, and while potential consequences could arise. Worse yet, not a single peep of her potential desires have been relayed to the woman who took her in and saved her from the jaws of death. Would they even give her the vessel that they've spend nearly a years worth of bodily fluids producing? Perhaps it may be the right moment to reveal her plans to the chief of this underground utopia.

Trexy herself could be found within the lower levels of sector 7, watching with a determined glare as the ship she tends to board is hoisted through the docking bay and over a set of trap doors. "Uh, Trexy?" she hears a familiar voice ring out, a glance from behind revealing Clara's approach. "So you made up your mind yet?" "Actually, I was hoping to get something off my chest. Something that's been bugging me for a while." "Fire away."

After a drawing in and exhaling a long breath, he prepares to admit the hidden motives of her assistance. "See...The reason why i was so interested in the sub was because I was wanting to use it to cross into the country up north. The reason why I was so hesitant in helping in your endeavors was because of an incident that transpired in another town when I inserted myself in their own affairs for my own benefit. In my efforts towards my goals, a young child met his untimely end. I always blamed myself for what happened to that poor boy. Like if I just got my supplies and left, he'd probably still be alive today." "So you were helping us this whole time just so you could get you're hands on the sub?" "We'll...not at first. But when I caught word of you bragging about it. The idea began to sprout in my head." "What was your plan then? Take while we all not lookin?" "No...I mean, how could I even feasibly do that?...I was...hoping to ask for it after the monster below us had been destroyed." After admitting all of this to Trexy, the scientist glances over to find the leader of New Erie giving only a simple glare, not a single answer leaving her mouth. Witnessing such a site sends a nervous shake through Clara's backside. "I-I know I should have told you when the thought came up. I'm sorry. It's just I didn't even know what action I should take. I didn't want anyone hurt. I-" In the midst of the scientist apologetic ranting, Trexy begins to approach the rambling young lady. A soft grasp to Clara's shoulder is all it takes for her paddling to cease. "Clara..." "Y-...Yeah." The tall chief humbly lowers herself upon Clara's level, her gaze meeting with the scientists. "If you help me in vanquishing the leviathan threatening our very livelihoods, then I'd be more then happy to escort you and your precious steed across the border myself." "You...really mean that?" "Course I do. I mean with everything you've done, how can I not return the favor." Hearing Trexy's willingness to assist in her journey despite her resentful deceit makes her let out a breath of relief. "As for yer whole mental dilemma, it sound like you've been puttin yerself through a lot of pressure. So scared about puttin yerself out for people just in case somethin horrible might happen. But ya know what, if you just go through life doing nothing cause yer afraid of what yer actions might cause, you ain't gettin nothin done." Upon these words, the leader of the subterranean city raises herself from Clara's site. "Can't be afraid of what dangers lie ahead." Viewing her departure towards the suspended sub, she contemplates the advice the scientist had just received. Of course, due to the consequences of her hosts less then thoughtful actions from earlier, she knows not to throw caution into the wind, but the core of Trexys message does mostly gets through.

Upon her moment of thought, a the voice of her host cuts through her thoughts. "Heya!" Tracing the source of the call out, the scientist finds Trexy within the side hatch of the sub. "You comin or what?" the chief wonders. Once more does the scientist ponder weighing what to do in these anticipated circumstances, her mind more clear and free of self torment. At this point, there's really only options to take. "Wait for me!". Racing towards the submarines hatch, a hearty laughter leaves Trexy's lips. "That a girl!"

With all hands on deck, the hatch to the cabin seals shut. Everyone takes their positions aboard the sub, Clara manning the power balancing console. Trexy takes her swivel seat, jumping in the captains chair with a giddy cheer. "Ye-yeah! Time for us to gut ourselves a sea serpent! Prepare for drop down!" That warning reaching our scientist ears, the shock makes her hop out from her seat. "Wait!? Drop down!? Like literally dropping us down!?" "Duh. How you think we're gettin this puppy in the water?" With an odd giggle escaping her captain, second thoughts begin to root themselves within Clara's conscious. Would the sub even be able to take such a slam upon the lake waters?

Upon the captain request, the trap doors from underneath begin to open, revealing the dizzying drop down to the lake below. Once the doors had been fully unlocked, the latches holding the ship in place all detach at once, the submarine rapidly descending towards the lake below. Within the cabin of the ship itself, everybody inside feels the shifting in gravity,, the force lifting them from their seats as they brace for the inevitable impact; their seat belts being the only thing keeping them locked in their chairs. If not for the seat belts locking them in their seats, all of them surely meet with the blunt end of the eventual crash. While screams mostly echo throughout the interior, a howling cheer from Trexy pierces though the panic. Finally, the heavy submarine makes its splashdown into the lake waters, the cabin quaking upon the weight of the crash.

Once the calm had settled in, Trexy sits up from her brace with an excited: "Hoo wee! Now that's what I call a ride!" Clara rising from her bracing position, she gazes about the cabin to find everyone still alive. "How..." Further inspection revealed that even the equipment survived the slam down upon the waters, the strange circumstance making her question: "How are we alive?"

"Alright. Now that we got that ride outta the way, time for a statues report. Everybody here in once piece?" the captain wonder whilst looking about the cabin. "Yeah..." "Fine..." "Stomachs churning, but other wise okay." Most of the personnel around the chief report to be in fair condition, say with some senses of dizziness and slight sickness.

Feeling the soft padding of the chair she sat upon, Clara finds the cushions her seat was resting on felt similar to that of a spongy rubber. Practically could fall asleep on such soft seats. "Nice. Looks like the impact seats did their job. How the hull lookin?" One mechanic in the midst of recovering from his dizzy spell, glances to the monitor in front of his station, showing: "Urrg...The drop cost the hull about %.50" "Nice. Still got plenty of shell left. What about the engine?" Reeling back from the cusp of vomiting, one sickly scientist take a peek upon the monitor reviewing the engine, finding that: "Mmmh...Engines running optimally...Ma'am...Uhh..." "Sweet. Roarin and ready to go. How's the battery holdin up?" the captain question, glancing in Clara's direction. After our scientist manages to snap back into action, she takes her her station, taking a gander to her panel presenting the battery statues. According to the monitor, the battery powering the ship is: "Balanced and running at full capacity."

The ships statues having been quickly checked, a small smile is drawn upon Trexy's face. "Now that all that crap's outta the way, Time to see where that sea serpent son of a bitch is lurkin. What's the radar showin?" A peek upon the radar reveals the lurking leviathans whereabouts; a green dot showed circling the center. "The beast is circling 50 meters around us, captain." With that fact having been stated, a curious wonder escapes Clara's lips. "It's that close!? Why didn't it attack us as soon as we hit the water?" A growl managing to exit between Trexy's teeth, she informs that: "Damn thing is playing with us. Likes to watch its food squirm before chowing down. Well that demon of the deep's got another thing coming if it thinks we're gonna let it take even a single bite outta us. Prep the torpedo’s!" Her command given, the crew prepares to fire upon the lethal leviathan encircling their vessel, arming the torpedo’s and locking onto the beast location. Clara directs the power of the ship into loading and locking the submarines war headed weapons. Once the coordinates of their hunt had been traced, one of the scientist informs aloud that: "The torpedo’s are armed and locked on. Ready to fire on your command." "Good. Now fire!"

Upon the captains request, the torpedo’s are launched from the sides of the ship. The sub aquatic warheads glide across the lake waters, their explosive heads primed and aimed towards the briny beast of the deep. Upon the leviathans lochness belly, they make contact; the resulting explosion causing it to sink into the dark abyss. The ongoing boom echoes across the rocky walls of the luminescence lime green caverns, grabbing the attention of the people above.

The people within the sub begin to celebrate, howls and cheers bouncing of the steel walls of the cabin. A relieved smile developing upon Clara's mouth, light giggles begin to leak from her lips. Could it really be over, just like that? One boom and the beast does down? Things are actually starting to look up for the scientist for once, her underwater trip into the land of leaves and maple beginning to seem like a plausible reality. However, upon a glance towards Trexy's stern glare, her hopes are quickly deflated on the spot. Guess she figures this fight is far from over.

"Quit yer hootin and hollerin! We ain't done here!" the chief barks, her echoing command causing the crew to cease their cheer. All of them look towards their captain with worry and fright upon her warnings, one of them questioning her hunch with: "C'mon chief, get real. That monster took in two explosive torpedo's. Surely there's no way it can still be-" "Oh but it is, boy. That beast ain't gonna be goin without a fight."

A check back to the radar shows Trexy's assumption to be on the mark, the monster on the approach. "Nnnn...It's coming right for us!" That warning having been confirmed, the crew scatter back to their stations and prepare for the leviathans lunge. The captain lowering her scope, she gauges the surroundings of the ship in wonder where the beast might strike. The quick scan shows not a single hint of their hunt, the chief only able to takeout nothing but the blue waters enveloping their vessel. "I ain't seein anything. You sure that radars workin?". "It's showing that its right on top of us." "Well, then where the hell could it have possibly-" Before Trexy could finish questioning the beasts presence, the entire sub suddenly shakes.

The leviathan rises from the water depths, quickly snatching the ship in its sharp toothed maw. From the waters does the ship breach alongside the sea serpent, the crew within being tossed about. The peak of its rise having been reached, the beast releases the ship from its jaw and hurls the vessel aside. Like a stone chucked across the water, the ship bounces across the surface of the lake.

From within, Clara clings to the safety of her fastened chair for dear life, watching as the crew are tossed about the cabin. Trexy attempts to catch and hold onto her tumbling crew as they pass. After a coupe of skips across the lake surface, the ship comes to its sudden halt upon slamming on the rocky wall of the cavern. As the sub settles upon the once calm waters, the crew within struggle to pull themselves together from the unanticipated joyride. The first thing Trexy does once getting her baring back was question: "Everyone okay?" Through the interior of the ship does her shipmates rise, their moans of pain and agony echoing through the cabin. "I can't feel my back..." "I think my ankle might be broken." "Where am I?" "My head hurts..." "Don't sound like anyone's dead. How we looking on the ship?" their captain adds. Some of the scientist and mechanics dragging themselves back to their stations, they give their leader the submarines statues. "Hull structure took one hell of a beating." "The engines rattled, it ain't running." Clara pulls herself back to her console after having held on for dear life, the monitor at her front showing that: "The battery's power took a nose dive. We're resting on %62." Trexy slams her fist upon the arms of her chair, cursing very beast that took them for a whirl. "Dammit! How could I let it sneak up onto us like this?" "Uh, captain?" With a disgruntled groan leaving her lungs, Trexy takes a peek towards her cremates manning the radar and anxiously wondering: "What is it now?" "The beast ain't done with us yet. It's approaching us fast." "What?"

Just like the crew member warns, the leviathan lunges its way towards the sub, the prey before it helpless to escape. The crew within the steel shell of the ship scramble about the cabin to get things running before they wind up as the sea serpent snack. "Get the engine working on turbo! Pronto!" their chief orders. The keystrokes of several buttons could be heard all around the interior of the ship, the crew at their console working on overdrive. Clara's conscious is racing at light speed to try and escape their watery graves as she manages the power of the ship. Once she redirects the power into the ships engine, the vessel roars to life once again, louder then ever. Clara racing to keep the battery from burning out, the ship rockets out of its doomed rut and flees from the jaws of the beast in the nick of time, mere inches from the serpents snapping teeth.

Swimming away from the maw of the monster, the tension of the crew begins to ease. "That was too close." "My heart was racing." "My life flashed before my eyes." "I'm gonna need a ton of painkillers after this." One scientist approaches the captain in the midst of relaxing and question: "What's our next plan, chief?" Shaking off the vertigo of the sudden propulsion, Trexy asks her curious crew mate if: "Depends. Are the laser defenses still online?" A nearby mechanic quickly checks the overall system statues and reveals that: "Yep, gamma cannons are functional?" "Great. Get the cannons going and prepare to take aim." Upon those orders, the crew turn the sub around, the front aimed towards the leviathan. The sea serpent's cold, soulless eyes staring down its potential prey.

Clara goes to work directing the power of the ship towards the laser defenses. Gotta hurry before the beast decides to come for seconds. Eventually, the leviathan stops staring and starts swimming, lunging towards its prey like a famished snake towards a cornered mouse. Upon the beasts approach, the ships cannons aimed and ready to fire. "Gamma cannons are ready, captain." With little hesitance, the chief of the sub order her crew to: "Fire on all cylinders!"

On Trexy's command, the laser cannons fire their gamma beams as the beast draws near. Much to their dismay, the sea serpent swerves and slithers around the deadly radioactive rays. "The cannons have missed, captain!" "The beast is on a collision course! What do we do!" With not much else that can be done, Trexy can only warn her crew to: "Everyone, brace for impact!" Like their chief orders, all within the interior of the sub prepare for the inevitable impact, this time holding onto their seats for dear safety.

Their watery foe slams itself into the submarine, the collision careening them across the briny depths of the lake. Within the rumbling chaos of the cabin, some of the crew within stay strapped to their seat as the interior tumbles about like a tumble dryer. They soon come to rest upon the dark depths of the lake bed, the briny deep proving itself to be eerily calm.

Upon the ships stop, the interior within sparks from the damage of some of the consoles, the shipmates recovering from the dizzying trip. Clara manages to come back from her vertigo venture, backing away from the man beside her as he expels the contents of his stomach. Another wild ride like that and she might be tempted to do the same. In her efforts to ignore her own nausea, she gazes back to her monitor and begins to balance the power once more. Seems like the collision got the power throughout the ship freaking the fuck out. Immediately, she gets to work in restoring the submarines battery balance, hoping it to occupy her from her crew mates sickening display.

Their captain pulls herself back from her queasy quarrel, distracting from her dizziness with the order: Nnnrrg...Someone give me the statue...and a sea sickness pill." With the surviving panels left within the cabin, the crew give their situation to their chief. "Hull structures looking below %50." "Main weapons have been knocked offline." "The radars down. We can't track the beast whereabouts." These facts reaching Trexy's ears, the precarious predicament makes the captain curse. "Son of a bitch." Quickly, she reaches for the scope above in hopes of getting a visual. But alas, the darkness of the depths obstruct her view. "Can't see a thing all the way from down here."

The uncertain situation having been relayed through the ship, waves of anxiety and paranoia slowly creep upon the crew. Amidst her own worries, Clara backs away from any nearby personal looking on the verge of exploding. As if things weren't tense enough on this metal shell already, the cabins looking more like an emotional minefield right now. Even the smallest of irritations could make the entire crew explode.

Before any of them could take the opportunity to cause a massive panic. "Aight. Everybody just calm down. We ain't down for the count yet. Sure we can think of a way outta this." A turn back towards the scientist that gave her the statues of the weapons, she questions him: "Now, you sure all our defenses are down?" Taking a closer glance back to his monitor, he finds one of the defenses is indeed still working despite all the destruction to the sub. "Oh, yeah.!There's one left. It's that special one you ordered we install." "Perfect. Get this baby up and runnin and plot a course towards the center of the lake." One distressed scientist catches the attention of their chief, eager to point out: "B-b-but b-boss. With the radar down. We won't know where the beast might strike. We'll be wide open." With this fact having been stated, the chief lets a light chuckle escape her lungs. "You don't think I know that? We got a surprise of our own in store for that scaly sea beast. Continue on course."

With the vessel resting upon the center of the lake, the nerves of the crew were wound at their tightest. Without the reliance of the radar for aid in locating their hunt, the threat of the sea serpents sudden onslaught proved to be more threatening then ever. Trexy gazes upon the more illuminated waters of the lake, hope to spot where their mutated monster may spring its horribly grotesque head. "C'mon, you briny bastard. Gotta be lurkin somewhere." With their captain occupied with gauging where the beast may be, the entire deck grows quiet. Not a single peep is shared among the entirety of the crew, the unease proving as more thick then the very water they traverse. With all the tension looming through the underwater air, it proves quite the challenge for Clara not to freak out herself. She not sure weather the shakes and quakes she feels are emanating from the ship or her own body. In her moment of suspense and fear, our scientist calms herself with a relaxed breath. Easy Clara, just calm yourself. This mystery weapon Trexy's on about sound to be quite promising. No one else around seems to be throwing their metaphorical shit in the air, gotta be quite the ass kicker for them to be so peaceful like this, right? It ain't no big deal. It's only the lives of potential thousands on the line after all. What's the worse that can possibly happen? He he hehahahahaha...ugh...

All the worry and fear finally comes to a boil upon the quake of their vessel, the leviathan sweeping the submarine by the clench of its jaw. The sea serpents sharp teeth start to squeeze down upon the shell of the sub, the echoes of the piercing steel travel throughout the interior. The worry and tension through the ship spikes at its highest peek as alarms above buzz. The mechanic manning the statues console warns that: "Hull structure is taking a nose dive! We're already down past %30!" "We need to activate the defenses now!" a scientist recommends. The crew prepares to spring their trap upon the beast threatening to chew through their shell, but an outcry from their captain orders them to: "Don't you dare spring it yet! Need a bit more time." Despite the dire circumstance, the crew stand by their leaders order; the sound of the bending steel growing louder alongside the crews suspense. "Hull's down to %18" With the danger of the leviathans maw literally outside the shell of the ship, Clara nerves are wound at their highest. The beast is on the verge of breaking through our barrier! Just what the hell does she think there is to wait for!? For it to ask for your hand in marriage!? This is isn't a fucking bachelorette party with wine and entertainment! Just spring the damn thing already!

"The hull's almost through! We're looking at %10!" That update having been relayed to their captain, the crew finally hears her order to: "Now! Show this scaly son of a bitch what real teeth look like!" Swiftly, the crew hurry to fulfill the request of their captain, everyone fingers racing against the teeth of the beast.

As the leviathan bites down upon its steel shelled snack, it feels a sudden sting throughout its mouth. Dozens upon dozens of sharp steel spines burst from the exterior of the submarine, piercing themselves along the monsters maw. The sudden sting urges the beast of the deep to let out a harrowing cry of agony, one that makes its way into the interior of the sub. The pain filled shrieks of the beast that threatened her subterranean society for so long makes Trexy lets out a satisfied chortle. "Yeah. Bet that hurt!"

Across the lake does the beast swim in its painful agony, the trail of its maroon blood dying the very waters it dwells. In its desperation to release the spiky sub from its maw, the leviathan bashes its head upon wherever its long neck could reach. As the constant slamming begins to snap the spikes from the exterior of the ship, the crew within struggle to withstand the beasts flailing. Although try as they might to hold onto their seats for dear life, it's not long before some of the scientists and mechanics scatter throughout the ship. Even Trexy and Clara are helpless against the constant careening of the cabin, the entire crew of the ship jumbled and tossed about like a sweet Sunday salad. Some manages to save themselves by grabbing onto whatever was firmly attached to the interior, while others prove unfortunate enough to crash into some of the consoles.

Finally, the spikes digging into the sea serpents maw release their stinging grip, the submarine sent flying across the airs of the caverns and eventually descending upon the surface of the lake with a massive splash. The waters calm once more, the crew within the ship pulls itself back from the overwhelming tumble. Clara recovering from the dizzying experience, to find herself upon the captains chair. A gaze about the cabin reveal most of the crew to be in one piece, a few of them lodges within the consoles of the ship. She soon finds the captain herself rising from the unconscious bodies of her crewmen and soon surveys the situation. “Lookin like a twister came through this place. Someone tell me the situation up top.” The closest to the scope, Clara takes a peek to what’s going on above. The chief takes a quick sweep through the ship, helping whoever was left alive after initial shake up. As she does so, she takes in the saddening site of her crew mates corpses shoved within the sparking panels. Truly, there unfortunate ends will be remembered. “This is a damn shame. How things lookin up there?” Her attempt to bait a response having fallen short, the take a peek towards the captains chair. The scientist manning the scope failing to utter even a single word. Trexy approaches the Clara and pulls her from the scope to find a horrified look upon her face. “What? What’dya see out there? Is it still alive!?” Snapping from her horror, Clara draws her gaze away from her host. What she saw out there was something she just couldn’t break to the woman that rescued her. Upon her refusal to speak, the captain takes the scope herself to see what struck Clara with such silence.

Her glance above reveal the stains of blood left drifting through the lake. “Heh heh. Looks like our little spiky surprise did a number on the briny bastard.” Her cheery demeanor soon deflates upon spotting the collateral damage their attack had wrought. Before her was a huge stalactite sinking into the briny depths, countless corpses bobbing around the rock. Although the site brings horror to the leader of new Erie, she somberly thankful that it will be the last time such tragedy befalls the city.

In her moment of morning, a slithering shadow slinks quickly upon the captains gaze. Her terrified breath echoes through the cabin, the crew at a wonder what she saw. Clara grasp Trexy’s shoulder to try and help in her moment of horror. “Listen, I know it must be rough seeing all that, but you just gotta remember that-” “It’s still alive.” she hears her host murmurs. Our scientist hearing the news herself lets go of the chiefs shoulder and backs away. “Wha-...What did you say?” Throwing the scope up in in a fit of rage, the captain screams to her crew that: “The damn son of a bitch is still alive!”

Her harrowing discovery reaches the ears of everyone on deck, some letting out breaths of panic, others shrieks of terror. A stomping turn towards the front of the ship, Trexy immediately orders to: “Get this baby up and running ASAP! We need to make our escape towards the docking bay and lift ourselves outta this mess!” Swiftly, the crew gets to work on granting their captains sudden request, the threat of their watery foe driving them into overdrive. Though the roar of the engine echoes through the interior of the vessel, that ferocity quickly dies down. The submarine refuses to move a single inch. Trapped upon the surface of the lake waters. The captain at a loss why the ship wasn’t in the midst of its escape, she questions: “What happened? Why aren’t we moving?” “All the tumbling’s done a ton a damage to the engine. We can’t even get a spark going.”

Upon the news of the engines failure to function, the entire crew begins to sweep itself into a panic. “You’re kidding! The ship won’t move!?” “We’re sitting ducks out here!” “Any moment, that sea beast is gonna take one last chomp on us!” “The hull can’t take anymore pressure! One more bite and we’re bait!” Worse among the hysteria, the crew’s captain breaks down upon her chair, her palms resting upon her head. “Why...Why do I always charge into these kinds of situations like a bull at the orphanage. Just rushin into thing and dammin the consequences. First my stupid decision to spread the power so we couldn’t rescue enough people, now me taking the sub out without it being finished. Why am I such a shitty leader?”

As this wave of mass hysteria rocks the ship about, our young scientist take a gander towards her monitor to make an intriguing discovery. The console displayed that despite the engine going kaput, there was still raw radioactive power being pumped into it, the battery showing to have still plenty of juice left. Both of these elements begin to set Clara’s gears in motion, her mind hatching a plan that could end the terror of the deep threatening them once and for all. Though there is a chance her strategy may yield towards the road to victory, it will not come without great sacrifice. Given how long this vessel had been under development, that much time cannot be taken waiting for her underwater venture to the north. But she aware that if no action is dealt soon, her quest to enter the land of leaves and maple may never come to pass.

Quickly, Clara cuts through the panic and chaos of the crew towards their captain. Reaching her chair, she pulls Trexy out from her self deprecating spiral by mentioning: “Trexy, listen! I think I might have a plan that can get us outta this mess.” This statement reaching the chiefs ears, she lifts her gaze towards the scientist beside her. “H-Huh?” “I know a way we can finish the leviathan off once and for all! But I need you to pull everyone together.”

Upon these words, the captain rises from her panic and orders everyone within with a howling scream: “Everybody stop!” The command of their leader booming throughout the cabin disperses whatever panic resides within the ship. All of them halt on a dime upon her order, all of their eyes glued to their chief as they await what she desires to inform them. Trexy glances over to Clara beside her, the scientist covering her ears from the scream. “Floors all yours.” Finding all the eyes in the room on her, Clara uncovers her ears and continues with: “Huh?...O-Oh, right! So anyway, my plan involves us using the unstable engine to destroy the sea serpent threatening to consume our flesh and bones. See, I was thinking we could overload the engine and send it down into the monsters maw.” Hearty laughter could be heard from her side, the chortles leaving her hosts lips. “Ha ha ha! I see what yer gettin at there. Shovin the ships engine into the briny bastard throat and makin its stomach explode. Not bad, could work." "It might if not for one thing." someone speaks out. A turn towards the crowd, both their site lock onto a lone scientist. "Got a better proposition under yer belt?" his captain wonders. "Uh, no no. For the most part, it's a solid plan. There's just one over site. Although the ship can eject the engine as a fail safe against such an overload, it doesn't exactly have any kind of aiming mechanism. Someone would have to go out and drive the makeshift nuke into the jaws of the beast."

At a stump once again, the crew debate on who should make the ultimate sacrifice. "So, who gonna have to go out?" "I ain't going out there." "Me neither. I got a husband back home." "I've got my whole life ahead of me." "My kids are waiting for me to come back. I can't leave them as orphans." Although both ladies hear the crew's yammers traveling through the cabin, they realize that none of them want to put their lives on the line. Great, guess we're back at square one then, aren't we?

Before Clara could take the time to formulate another plan, she hears Trexy beside her offering: "I'll bite the bullet." Everyone in the ship turns in shock upon their leaders request, the gasps of the crew filling the air. "What did you say?" one of them dares to question. "I said I'll do it. I'll be takin the engine into the belly of the beast. Upon that, shouts of begging and pleading spew out from the crowd of mechanics and scientist. "C'mon cheif, no." " There has to be a better way." "We need you." "Let just think about this for a minute." Joining their denial, Clara stands to the front of the captain "Yeah! Let's not be rash on this. I'm sure with a little more time, we can think of something else." "Time is somethin we ain't got no more. Someone gotta take action, and they gotta take it now." "C'mon, Trexy. You can't throw your life away like this." "Sorry Clara, ya ain't changing my mind. No way. No how. If this is what it take to make sure my folks up there stay safe, so be it. Beside..." The leader of the subterranean city turns her gaze towards the hatch above, a melancholy glare drawn upon her eyes. "It be worth about as much as my salt of a leader if anything else. Screwin us over this badly." Those words having past her lips, they form a faint smile. "Probably due my great grandpappy proud for once." A sigh leaving her lips, the captain finally concludes her short speech by declaring that: "Whelp, best get this over with."

Making her way towards the hatch above, she takes in the concerns and pleads of her crew as she passes them. Climbing her way up the ladder, she nears the top of the cabin. Before even touching the hatch itself, her irritation boils and demands that: "All y'all quit yer bellyachin! Yer actin like a buncha bablin children." The loyal crew silencing themselves upon their captains request, the most getting out were whimpers and quiet crying. "I know this pretty rough of y'all to take, even for the people atop of us. But someones gotta make sure the job gets the job done." Trexy begins to point out individual members of the crew, checking off with: "Bob, you take care of them kids of yers. Jake, don't keep Benny waitin when ya get back. Charlie, I'm sure you'll make plenty of great things in the future. Paul, tell Barbra thanks for everythin she's done." Finally, her gaze shifts towards our scientist, Trexy continuing her departing words with: "Clara, just remember. This was my choice, kay? Good luck gettin up north. You'll need it." With that wish of luck, our scientist releases a sigh from her lungs. The captains smile fades as she gives her final orders, commanding the crew above with: "Now, direct the battery's power towards the engine til it hits critical and get ready eject. I'm countin on all of y'all. Don't let me down." Finally, she turns the valve above open and climbs out of the hatch, its shut marking the crew to fulfill their captains last request. Clara taking a moment to stare towards the hatch before returning to her station. Like the lady said, best get this over with.

Once outside the ship, Trexy sprints towards the front of the hull, jumping over the many wears and tears of the steel shell as she discards her armor. Almost anyone can tell that the poor girls has taken quite the vicious beating, the scars of the beasts teeth still fresh upon the steel. She halts atop the tip of the nose, awaiting for the engine to pop from the front.

Within the interior, the mob of mechanics and scientist all work on overdrive to transform the engine into a makeshift nuke. Clara rerouting the overall power of the submarine, transferring whatever power the batteries had left into the unstable engine. Need this baby to give the best boom its got if its going into the sea serpents stomach. The scientist watches as the numbers rapidly rise; the bar indicating the input of the engine going beyond the limit. Once at its peak, she informs everyone to: "Eject the engine now!"

The nose of the of submarine swings wide open, the engine launching out from the front of the ship and splashing upon the waters of the lake. The furious luminescence of the makeshift nuke in her sites, Trexy waits not a moment further to swim after. Even nearing the unstable engine felt like approaching an active volcano, feeling the intense heat even through her padded suit. Taking grasp of the steel engine, a sharp hiss escapes through her teeth. Pull yourself together, Trexy. It's only pain. Ignoring the burning in her palms, the chief paddles the engine towards the sinking stalactite, watching as the leviathan snacks upon the victims of the disaster. It best enjoy its meal while it can. It shall be the last time it dines upon the flesh of her kin. The last of the cadavers are devoured, the shadow of the sea serpent slinks towards Trexy. The overwhelming heat from the explosive begins to burn through her gear, the radiation of the engine in contact with her bare skin. C'mon, don't quit on me now. Just a bit further.

At long last, the leviathan surfaces, the leader of New Erie face to face with the beast gaping maw. On the cusp of her demise, her final breath is one of euphoric relief. Finally, the beast that plagued her settlement for so long would meet its demise this day. With but a single bite, the monster swallows both Trexy and the engine whole.

Silence befall the caverns of New Erie, Clara and the crew within the sub awaiting for the engine that the beast had consumed to explode. The tension and anticipation in the air was at its peek, some at a wonder if their chiefs sacrifice was but in vain.

Finally, the overwhelming silence is broken by a massive blast. The magnitude of the explosion rocking the entire caverns. The people above holding their beloved, their children, and their others prey that this final tremor would not take anymore of them as the inside the of the stalactites quake. At last, the final calm sets in, the cheers of the citizens above travel through out the lime green city of New Erie, unbeknownst to them what their peace had cost.

Their celebration reach the interior of the ship, the crew within morning the sacrifice of their leader. Among them, Clara is left to ponder what could have been. Could have been another way? Another option that they could have taken? Did Trexy really have to give her life so that they may keep theirs? Such answers to her questions escape the scientist?

With the business beneath the earth finished, both Clara and Angelo climb out of the canyon they crashed into upon the webbing of the ursa arachnid. Atop the column of rock, she gazes out towards the horizon of the lake, the moonlight reflecting of its clear waters. Might her quest to breach the land of leaves and maple ever be fulfilled? Only the march of time may tell.

[lillaxtrigger]

Faded land: Chapter 12

The morning sun shined upon a war torn canyon upon the lakeside, reminisce of a once proud city left as nothing but bits and chunks of pavement and stone. The nuclear wastes resting along the bottom illuminates a green hue that pierces through the waning twilight. Crawling throughout the sides of this war torn city, Clara rides atop her mutant steed up one of the many inclines of the civilization left behind, her attention kept upon the lime green glow below. Best to gain as much high ground as possible from such hazardous residue. It’d be a dangerous drop indeed if either were to lose their precious grips upon the stone. Angelo might serve a better chance among the radioactive wastes, but who knows what might transpire if the scientist were to dive head first. It’s doubtful such a venture would land Clara a sweet set of superpowers, more along the lines of a cruel case of cancer, or worse.

Speaking of Angelo, the scientist notices her arachnid companion to be a bit on the sluggish side as of late. That and the mix of all her gain girth sparks hints of worry in Clara’s consciousness. Poor girl’s been slowing down quite a lot lately. Wonder what’s got in such a lethargic rut? Perhaps the burns that were inflicted upon her have yet to fully heal, although all the gained weight on the other hand proved to be an unsolved mystery.

The scientist had been pretty persistent in preserving their rations since last time, holding them ever so closely to her person so that her steed may not partake in mischievous midnight snacking. A fact that she is certain of upon checking her bag to find not a single can out of place. So where did all her access girth come from? In any case, it might be best for them both to take a quick rest atop this next column of rock, the scientist hearing Angelo’s weary breath. The ursa arachnid seemingly on the brink of passing out any given moment.

Both soon arrive at the top of the column, the bear spider plopping herself on the cracked pavement. The flat concrete proved itself to be stable enough to rest upon. The perfect spot to gauge the view of the lake overlooking the horizon. The waters reflecting the rising sun among the vast, seemingly endless sea before them made itself the perfect divide to the rivaling nations. Its a pondering mystery what awaits the scientist on the other side of this vast blue ocean set before her. Only hints of the Canadians society have managed to reveal themselves up to the point of this journey. Their transportation, their technology, even their weaponry, all proving to be far superior then Clara has ever dared to face before. If those hints of their forces were enough to instill such overwhelming shadow in the heart of this once proud homeland, its only a wonder what civilization might have risen in the wake of the war. Among these pondering questions, the one burning among them all is how she would even cross into the land of leaves and maple. Throughout her journey, rumors of their ruthless and impenetrable borders have come up from time to time. Tales of how next to nobody managing to even set a single foot within the country to the north alive have ingrained themselves within Clara’s memories. But no worries grasp her thoughts more so then what fate may have befell her colleague, Arthur. Still so many questions go unanswered upon the subject. Where did you go? Where did they take you? What might they be doing to you? But the one she desires to be answered most of all would be why. Why did you do all this?

Such thoughts swirling within the anxious scientist mind can’t help but make a sigh of worry escape from her lungs as she combs through the contents of her bag. Perhaps breakfast can manage to take the edge off this tense brainstorm. Even a minute would prove to make great relief. A beaming smile draws across the scientist face as she pulls something out from the depths of her pack. Huzzah! A can of healthy and hearty chicken noodle soup! The brew of noodles and poultry never fail to lift ones vigor, even in the most harrowing and disparaging of times. Couple this with a cup of calming tea and the anxieties will melt away in no time.

But before either woman or bear could dine upon the superfluous elixir, the earth beneath them quaked. The scientist swiftly takes her stand, curious what might have made the ground tremor so unexpectedly. A quick gaze in the depths of the canyon below showed nothing but the radioactively lime luminescence weakening against the coming sunlight. What a peculiar occurrence? Wonder what could have caused such a sudden shake. Worse matters is that the piece of dangling road both her and Angelo have taken refuge on seems to be on the verge of crumbling. Best course of action to take as of now would be swift retreat from the precarious rock, but the mutant steed shows herself to be too exhausted to even lift a single leg. No other option left but to wait for the chimeric arachnid to regain her strength, all the while remaining careful not to tip the balance of the unstable pillar they rest upon. Not the most exciting of endeavors, what else can be done besides take utmost caution. Oh well. At least the refined flavors of the chicken noodle soup can still perk the old spirits.

Not even a single inch do either of them move before the earth quakes once more. The tremor this time enough to make the tall column beneath give way, the slate the perched themselves on sliding down the incline. The only thing left for the scientist to do now is hope that they stay atop the sliding slate, holding onto her mutant steed in hopes of keeping the exhausted bear spider on board. Off a curved stone they go, careening across the canyon airs and soon to plummet towards the awaiting bottom of the radiation ridden quarry below. Upon impact with the earth, the lime green ground gives way, the duo descending down into the depths of the earth.

In their descent down, the scientist finds a massive body of water awaiting them at the bottom, a lime green light mixed with the morning sun reflecting in the waters. A course of action must be taken soon, else the pair might make the last splashdown of their lives. Desperately, the scientist rapidly pats the tired ursa’s back, hoping that Angelo jolts awake from her slug long enough to save their hides. Halfway down towards the cavernous waters and her steed still refuses to awaken from her exhausted slumber. Come on, girl. Time to wake up. Gotta get that spinneret of yours a good workout, preferably before we hit water.

Thankfully, all the repeated padding awakens the fuzzy arachnids instincts, Angelos backside squirting out a long stream of silk that rockets up towards the roof of the cave. Clara’s gaze quickly ventures to the strings rise through the caverns, hoping the webbing would reach the ceiling before they take the big swim. Much to her joy, the web attaches upon the side of a stalactite, both woman and bear yanked from their wet grave. Dangling several yards from their watery grave, the surrounding debris and can of chicken noodle ripple the waters below.

That close call saved, the scientist lets a breathe of relief escape from her lungs, her gaze leading up through the string as her body relaxes. Its then she notices the lime illumination all across the rocky roofs of this damp hollow. Seems the radiation above is leaking through the earth and shining down upon these ill indigenous caverns. Perhaps that would explain the abundance of massive stalactites littering the ceiling, the numerous glowing holes leaking from the rock suggesting something happening within. But then what’s the case with the numerous lines connecting all of them together. Too far up to gauge what exactly they might be, but they don’t look like part of the caverns natural formation. Wonder what they could be then?

Before the scientist spends much time dwelling on such a mystery, the sound of splashing water reaches her ears. Odd. Could swear the last of the rubble fell down along side her. Taking in a quick gaze downwards, they bares witness to a serpent like shadow streaking through the lake waters, an obvious warning that both need to start the trek upwards immediately. Clara attempts to awaken her steed in hopes of beginning their ascent quickly, however Angelo proves to be far too exhausted, not even batting an eye. Come on, don’t do this now! We gotta get moving! No matter how desperately she tries to motivate the mutant, Angelo fails to snap out of her slog. The lake below disturbed by the passing of the dwelling water serpent, it might not be long before the duo are chomped into human/spider chum chunks.

Amidst her panic, the scientist begins to take note of their gradual ascension from the waters of the cave, a glance up showing the string being tugged upward towards the roof. A look towards her bear spider showed the steed to be as tired as always, so the questions sprouts in Clara’s head. What might be pulling them up? A question that is best left on hold as the scientist hopes they can escape the potential grasp of their awaiting predator.

Halfway through the climb, she takes notices of the waters below swirling about, the shadow circling their vicinity. From those waters, a massive leviathan breaches the lake surface, rocketing towards its dangling prey with its gaping maw primed and ready to bite. The scientist braces herself for their potential demise, fearing the distance between her and the beast to be far too short for escape. A calming breath passes through her lips once the contrary is proven otherwise, the lake behemoths clamping teeth mere inches from their ascent. The sea giant, failing to dine upon their flesh, sinks back into the briny depths of the lake, watching as its unseized catch rises from its grasp. Quite the heart attack inducer indeed, but non the less a very close call.

That horrifying situation having been averted, her eyes venture upwards in wonder of who her saviors might be. Her gaze takes in the site of the stalactites among the surrounding green luminescence, the holes along the stone proving not to be leaking radiation, but instead artificial light. A strange site to behold, but none more amazing then what her gaze catches during their climb to the top. Surrounding them in their ascent, she finds the bizarre lines she spotted earlier to be bridges and tracks of steel, serving to connect the numerous formations along the cavern. People and carts alike travel across the steel pathway, their countless eyes fixed on both the rising duo and the hole they left in their wake. The mix of the lime glow alongside the natural twilight pouring out from the hole they’ve entered reflecting upon the metal of the tracks. The scientist could not believe what her site was partaking in, the rising view of an underground civilization, an entire settlement living within the stalactites under the city. It’s...It’s so…gorgeous, the mixture of lights, the twirling bridges and tracks, the numerous rocky pikes, the seemingly calm lake. Truly a site one can only dream of beholding, one that serves to be quite distracting as well. Upon the scientists awe of the scene before them, she proves herself far too occupied to take in the upcoming top of the hole in time as it hits her head, drawing her unconscious as both woman and bear are pulled within.

Clara’s consciousness arising once more, she’s finds herself welcomed by a soft sensation underneath her resting person. A comforting feeling that only the plush material of a bed would be able to mimic. The scientist fails to remember the last time she was able to properly bask in the warmth of a pillow top and almost drowns herself in the entrancing warmth. But terrifying thoughts of what happened last manages to jolt her from her lulling daze. She rises from the sheets of her bed, finding herself in the furnished confines of a small room of rock, a single bulb illuminating overhead enveloping the room in a soft glow. A quick scan through her newfound dwellings, she finds her bag resting upon the other side of the room. The scientist swiftly jumps out from her bed and retrieves her bag, a quick glance within the pack showing everything within remaining untouched. Cans, cup, compass, it was all there. Good, nothing got stolen. Be kinda screwed if the stuff in here just wound up disappearing.

Before she has the time to question her whereabouts, her nose detects the pleasing scent of a cooked meal. A scent that her nostrils had not partake upon in quite some  time. The smell leads her gaze towards the nightstand, her site resting upon a humble dinner set upon the side of the bed. Approaching the meal, she could already taste the simple, but delicious cooked chicken through her mouth. Such a meal of poultry would more then make up for the hearty elixir Clara had lost. Without a moment of hesitance, she begins to dig in, but the sound of the door make the hungry scientist halt in her track. Wielding the fork in her hands, she points the utensil forward and warns whoever might be awaiting to: “Stay back! Another step and I’ll pstab your eyes out. I swear I’ll do it.” Before her stood in the doorway a tall woman garbed in thick uniform like attire, reminiscent of a sort of armored mechanic uniform, urging the bellicose scientist to: “Just relax, kay. I ain’t gonna do anything to ya.” “Doubt that. What did you do with my steed?” “The bear spider thing? Resting out here. Take a look.”

Out from the room the woman leads the scientist, presenting Angelo resting alongside the side of the dorm doors as she dines on fed chicken. Clara watches as a couple people stop their walk through the hall to stare upon the feeding mutant. “Yep, sure was quite the shock when you two fell into our lives like that. Lucky we pulled y’all up in time. Moment sooner and you two mighta wound up as bloody sea chum chunks.” “Wait, you pulled us up?” “Me and a bunch other folks hangin around. Good thing your string came up on our window, huh?”

A scan of her surroundings revealed an assortment of lime green pipes running throughout the dormitory roof, similar to the roof of the caverns she gazed to not a moment ago. The machines above the doorways raised a sense of familiarity to the scientist. Although significantly much smaller in size, they looked to be the kind of machines used to regulate and stabilize nuclear energy. What kind of operation might these people be running here? A nuclear power plant? These kinds of observations combined with what’s has seen so far makes the scientist want to ask her host: “What sort of weird place did I fall into?” “Well, see here. You landed yourself smack dab in the heart of-”

Before Clara’s curiosity could be quenched, a sudden alarm blares from above. “Oh, what is it now!?” the woman barks upon the alarm. From across the hall, the voice of an approaching person gradually pierces through the sound of the alarm. They scream out for someone by the name of: “Trexy! Trexy! Trexy!” Upon this name, the scientists host turns towards the nearing individual, wanting them to give her a: “Statues report!” “It’s the reactor core. The tremors from earlier caused it to go haywire. We could be having a meltdown on our hands.” “Ah, son of a bitch! Tell the crew at the reactor I’m on my way.” With her workers departure, the woman turns her site towards the scientist and apologizes with: “Very sorry about cutting our little introduction short, but I gotta run. Be with you real soon.” That having said, she bolts through the halls of the dormitory.

A nuclear meltdown, eh? Haven’t faced such a situation in a long while. But the old instincts still remember how to quell such a potential disaster. A genius in nuclear fission herself, her aid might do a heap of help. Lets hope there’s still time to catch up to her hurrying host.

With swiftness in her step, Clara hurries through the halls of the dormitory in hopes of catching up to her host. Down the flight of stairs, she jumps, the passing people ducking under her as she makes her leap. Landing upon the marble floor at the bottom of the steps, she quickly makes the turn. One more flight of steps she goes down is when she finds herself within the wide, packed chambers of a cafeteria, the mixed scents of various foods filling her senses. Through the entire closure do the people scatter upon the blare of the alarm above, dropping trays of food in their quick traversal. Forcing herself through the scared mob, the scientist apologizes for every bump and bruise she causes. “Sorry. Excuse me. Pardon.” Atop one of the tables does Clara take her stand, gaining enough height from the panicking masses to partake in the view. Taking the elevated line of site, she manages to spot Trexy leaving through the opposite doors. The scientist wastes no time in following her lead, jumping across table after table so as to avoid the shifting crowd below. Making one final leap across the masses towards the exits, she burst through the exit doors of the eating facility, taking in their view of her host exiting ahead.

Pursuing her rushing rescuer, Clara finds herself standing upon one of the many steel bridges connecting the numerous stalactites together, several people rushing past in her search as she takes in the full view of the underground city before her. Among the passing people, she manages to spot Trexy in the distance, her gaze locked downwards. Perfect. Seems the scientist managed to catch her in the midst of a suddenly convenient stop. Just gotta hurry before she decides to pick the pace back up.

On the approach, the scientist witnesses her host take a daring leap off from the side of the bridge. Whoa! What the hell! What is she thinking? Quickly, she scuttles over to where Trexy had jumped, gazing down to where she might have wound up. Oh god! Why would she just jump like that!? Does she want to wind up deep in the den of the deadly lake beast!? Things might be going south, but there's no need for that. Frantically, Clara scans below, hoping to catch even a glimmering sign of the stupidly brave woman. Much to her relief, she catches the site of her host riding atop a moving cart, grinding across the steel of the tracks. Man, today’s just putting the scientist through the paces, ain’t it? Having gotten that emotionally draining scare out of the way, she watch as the cart Trexy had boarded enters a distinctively large stalactite in the distance. Best for Clara to pick up the pace herself if she wants any chance of stopping the nuclear nightmare in time. With that on her mind, she makes haste towards the entrance at the end of the bridge. Not really knowing if she could pull off such a daring stunt herself, she figure it be the safer option to haste on foot.

Bursting through the doors of the stalactite, the scientist rushes through the halls with but a single thought on her consciousness. How the hell is anyone supposed to keep track of where they're going in this rocky settlement? Every turn she makes was nothing but factory lines and metal molds on all her sides. Swimming against a stream of escaping employee’s, the constant barrage quickly begins to make Clara lose her sense of direction. She need to find refuge from this chaos real quick so best to figure out where to go.

Out from the river of passing factory workers, she leaps onto a nearby conveyor belt. The scientist evades and dodges machine parts and mechanical arms, hoping to find someplace to gauge her surroundings. Grasping the arm of an electric drill, she rides the mechanical appendage towards the catwalk above. Once landing firmly upon the steel walkway, she pulls out the compass from her pack, the needle displayed pointing east. When last glancing, the needle was set on south. Calculating from that and the path Trexy took leading out from the dormitory, she wagers the way her host went was...northwest maybe? Her direction set, she follows the compass through the catwalk, the steel echoing each step she runs. In her hastes, she takes in the view of the flood of workers she was once submerged in passes the halls like a naturally formed river, struggling to escape from the threat of radioactive annihilation looming over them. Such a site urging Clara to hurry, before to worse comes to fruition. Nearing the exit of the factory, she leap out from the dangling safety of the catwalk and into the ground floor, pushing past several employees coming in.

Upon reaching the outside, she finds herself standing upon steel once more, leading to the left from her desired destination. Questioning how she managed to end up on the wrong side, she wonders if the calculations she took might have been off. Not enough time to retrace her steps. Gotta find another way over. A glance down the bridge, she notices another below leading into the stalactite she saw Trey enter near the tip of the rock, past that, a several hundred foot drop into monster infested waters. It doesn’t take a genius like her to figure out what to do next.

Daring not to throw caution in the wind, she takes a moment to gauge the distance from the bridge below. Once the measurement in her head has been set, she takes a step back to give herself a running start. Hope calculations aren’t off this time. Without any more preparations to take, Clara sprint across the width of the bridge, the people around her looking on in horror as she takes her daring leaps.

The dive down proves to be an accelerating experience for the scientist, her hair blowing in the cavernous winds as she rapidly descends down towards the bridge. Sticking her arms out, she grabs on the bridge once in reach, the sudden force almost making her loose her grip. Although a tight call, she manages to pull herself up upon the suspended steel platform and hurries within not a moment sooner.

Up a flight of steps she climbs, racing to the top just in time to witness Trexy alongside several other people surrounding the glowing core. Rays of radiation leak out from the reactor, some of the people zapped by the passing beams, with Clara barely dodging death herself. With nothing but a wrench in her grasp, the work woman blocks the blasting beams from her person. Pushed back form the force of the blast, she curses: “Dammit! Can’t even get close to the thing! Won’t have time to make any repairs!”

A glance across the room, Clara notices a working panel on the other side of the reactor. Perhaps there, she could control the core and give it a chance to cool. Wasting not another moment, she rushes towards the console, gaining her hosts attention as she sprints forth. Dashing across the room the scientist goes. Jumping, ducking, and dashing over whatever gamma rays shoot towards her direction. Truly a recklessly risky dance of radiation.

Once the scientist gets her mitts on the control panel, she immediately gets to work, hoping the same process she performed time and time again would apply to this kind of technology. Lets see...Redirect cooling, lowering city wattage, lowering output, halfway there. Watching Clara working on the panel, Trexy notices the reactor beginning to calm from its maddening meltdown. Just a couple more moments of cooling bliss and it should be calm from its maddening meltdown. Upon nearly quelling the raging reactor, a dangerous discharge makes its way towards the scientist. Right when she notices the oncoming blast, its proves to be far too late to evade. She closes her eyes, bracing for the inevitable blast of radioactive rays. When she fails to feel the sting of the scorching stream of nuclear power, she opens her eyes to find her host blocking the beam. “Hurry...up” she urges in her struggle. With but a few more keystrokes, the reactor halts in its raging ray rave, the alarm still blaring its warning overhead.

Not a single moment does Trexy hesitate to lunges towards the core, Clara watching as her host jumps towards one of the pipes on the side. Her wrench making contact with the end of the loose pipe, she flips the screw tightly back in place, the heat from the machine beating against her armor. The pipes screwed firmly in place, she soon makes her way to the next set and repeats from there.

Captivated by the show of acrobatic repair, Clara begins to snap out from her distraction upon realizing the core still needs to be kept cool. Shit, that right. Still gotta cool things down. The scientist turns back to the panel, typing away command after command to calm the catastrophic core.

Once the pipes along the side of the core had been tightly screwed in place, Trexy makes her way to the reactor itself, patching and screwing the walls of the machine and preventing any further rays from leaking. A screw, a turn, and a press is all that’s left to end the threat of the murderous meltdown, the alarm calming upon the cores cooling.

The ease soon setting into the scene, people with medical equipment soon rush in alongside, tending to the workers that were caught in the reactors wrath. The scientist taking a curious peek to them herself, she bares witness to the freshly charred cadavers left in the disasters wake. Ain’t no way anyone would stand a chance after taking a face full of uranium waves. To think if her host hadn’t stepped up to save her skin, she would have wound up just the same. A glance towards the woman in question shows her approaching one of the med staff as they ready to rush the casualties out. “Whelp, what’s the statues report?” “Not looking good chief. Several facilities and homes have already lost power. We’re looking at a 62% power loss.” “62%!? Dammit! Fifth time this month things almost went nuclear. Swear that beasts tantrums are making things worse every damn day. Battle sub better be ready soon, else we might not make it to the end of the year.”

The sound of the scientist soon reaches her ears, turning about to her guest with a hearty: “Oh, sorry about all that. Didn’t mean for all this to happen during our talk. Been having this sort of problem for a while now. Thanks for the assist. Gotta say, didn’t figure you for an expert on nuclear engineering. Though coming with that getup, guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” The compliment drives Clara’s face to flush, scratching the back of her beat red head. “We’ll, uh. You don't get to earn a Ph.d in nuclear physics for nothing. Eh he he….” The curious question she wished to know coming back to her, the red vanishes from her cheeks. “Oh, um. Back at the dorms, You never told me what you were about to say.” “Ah, right...Shoot, what was you’re question again?” "Where am I?" “Well, let me tell you, my little nuclear physicist. You found yourself smack dab in the heart of New Erie.”

“See, back during the heat of the war, lots of bombs were dropped on the city above by our neighbors up north. All that explodin and shaken going on made the tunnels below collapse, eventually hollowing out into a huge underground cave. Happening alongside all this, the waters from the lake began busting in, flooding the caves and overtime filling the hollows bottom into its own underground pond. Though the people in the city above have long since passed, many a others from different reaches of the land gathered. The over abundance of nuclear residue burnt into the ground gardened quite a crowd. People wondered what to make of it all, thinkin how it could help them survive the harshness of the outside world. That’s when my great grandpappy had the greatest idea. It took alotta sweat, alotta grit, and alotta blood, but he had everyone help him hollow out the stalactites littering the radiation soaked ceiling and figured out a way to use all that power just hangin on the ceilin. And though many lives where lost, our homemade society grew and grew, eventually becoming the rocky city you see today.”

Taking a casual stroll through the bridge between stalactites, Clara takes in the view of the underground city of Erie once more, gazing in as the passing driving along the tracks venture through. A society within the rock below the surface alongside the dangerous lime glimmer they so harness for survival, reflecting off the deep waters they suspend themselves so. Thousands of feet above a watery grave mixed with the awaiting jaws of death. A fearless lifestyle one must truly commit themselves too. Truly a society built upon irony.

The scientist begins to loose herself to the very site, but the echoes of her hosts voice begins to pull her back to reality. “Hey?...Hey?...Hey?” Trexy leading her attention once again, Clara turns her gaze to the chief of this subterranean settlement. “Uh, ye-yeah...” “Alright. Now that I’ve explained myself. Best you do the same. What caused ya to crash into our lives?”

A walk through the dormitory, Clara had just finished relaying her journey up to this point and what brought her here to New Erie. “Ooh wee. Knew you’ve might’ve been beating the old horses trial, considering your odd choice in steed. But I’d never figure you gone through all that and a sack of hay.” “I’ve been through quite a lot. Haven’t I.” “All of it ain’t gonna come close to getting over those borders to the north. Patrol there’s supposed to be mighty lethal.” “I’ve heard.” “Well, til ya ready to hit the trail again. Why don’t ya stay here? Hate to have ya out there unprepared.” “What? Really? No, I couldn’t do that to you guys. Ya guys need to save up you’re rations.” “Oh, it ain’t no big deal. Farms and factories we have around here keep all of us mighty stuffed. Besides, least I do after doin your part in stoppin the meltdown."

Stopping at the door at the scientist dorm, Trexy had one final piece of advice before she hit the hay. “Now you best rest up now so you can catch breakfast in the morning. Cafeteria downstairs gonna be servin breakfast burrito’s. My favorite.” With that, the chief of the caverns leaves both Clara and Angelo to the business of her dorm.

Although Clara attempt to drift off into slumber, the constant thoughts on her mind prove the task to be in vain. Only staring upon her bed, gazing into the dim, lime glow of the light above. And while she is only left to process all she has learned today, a much more promising plan cooks within her thoughts. The scientist ponders how the incredibly deadly leviathan that almost swept her from the hands of life came within the waters of this underground society. Perhaps an unsuspecting sea creature found its way through a tunnel formed when the bombs dropped upon the unfortunate city above. To that end, there might be a way in the land of leaves and maple crossing through the lake of Erie. This battle sub that Trexy had mentioned earlier should prove itself the capable vessel for such a venture. Maybe if she helps these subterranean dwellers further in their endeavors to end the terror of the deep that plagues to end their lives, she could persuade them to lend her a ride across the waters above.

In the midst of these thoughts, the scientist takes in the site of her chimeric steed, at a wonder how Angelo may fit in this underwater journey across the waters of Erie. Her involvement entirely depending upon the sheer scope of the ship in question, she’s considers if she should even go through with her idea. Might have to ask where the sub is stationed come morning.

It’s here that Clara begins to feel a haunting sense of familiarity, as if a similar thought process had once crossed her consciousness. Struggling to recall the moment that these steps of planing have shown themselves before, the memories suddenly hit her. Oh...That right…Last time a similar dilemma like this occurred, a poor, unsuspecting child met with its early demise. Might not be the greatest idea to insert herself in the plight of these people in fear of history repeating itself. The only option left on the table now is to depart from these lime green caverns come morning. Best not to waste anymore time then she has.

The stroke of dawn soon arrives, the morning twilight shinning through the holes alongside the nuclear deposit. Mounted atop her mutant steed, Clare prepares for her leave from the stalactite city, determined to seek another way into the country up north. A slow gallop across the dorm halls, she catches ear of passing workers, happiness and eager in their tone. “Come on. Those breakfast burrito’s are gonna run out if we don’t pick up the pace.” “I’m hurrying! I can smell the eggs from here.”

The passing mention of the breakfast wraps makes her pause, the growling of her stomach tempting her to stay so that she may dine upon such promising meal. A quick peak of her bag showed her supplies generously restocked. Got plenty of cans for the road ahead. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to consider the prospect of staying in this settlement just a moment longer, long enough to indulge in the morning cuisine. Gotta keep supplies plentiful after all.

A quick stop down the stairwell, she stops within the cafeteria she zoomed by the day before. Seated upon the marble seating of the lunch table, she cannot help but stare into the majesty of her breakfast wrap. Even if the food before her seemed a bit uniformal, the welcoming scent is more then enough to engulf her senses in pleasure. She grasp the side of the wrap with both hands, inching the compact meal ever closer to her drooling maw. After one swift bite, the tastes of the fully balanced breakfast submit themselves to the scientist tastes, enrapturing her in a maelstrom of greasy yolk, such tastes the scientist hadn’t felt in ages. Never did Clara once thought that the flavors of bacon and eggs would draw a tear from her eye.

In the process of enjoying her hearty meal, the scientist is surrounded by the mingles of the people around her. “Mind if I give you some news, Chief.” “Lay it on me, pal.” Among them, she hears a familiar southern draw reach her ears, gazing around her vicinity in wondering where the voice might originate. “We got reports of the power spread doing a number on some of the equipment in Sector 7. The tools won’t run optimally at the rate you desire. If we can’t get enough power, I’m afraid the construction on the battle sub will be delayed.” “That ain’t gonna cut it. Tell the people down at the reactor to reroute the power towards the lab, on my order.” “Boss are you sure about that? Powers spread pretty thin as is. The tracks might not work. “I’m as sure as sunshine. Drain power from all non vital area’s and redirect them towards the laboratory. I want that beastie lurking beneath to die as swiftly as possible. The quicker we get this over with, the better. Several more quakes like that and we won’t make it to the end of the year.” These words reaching her ears, Clara is taken a curious ponder towards the notion of the sub.

“So where were you when it happened.” she hears to her left. Aside from her seat, a pair of gentlemen were engaging in a form of conversation, the man across the table answering with: “I was hanging around the hospital when the quake struck. Shook the patients up real bad. Everyone thought the whole place was gonna fall into the lake.” “I hear ya. Kids over at the school got really riled up. Screaming and crying like the world was gonna end.” “Can’t blame any of them. Already lost 5 small stalactites in the last 2 months. How long do ya think it’ll be before a big one takes the plunge.” “Don’t know. It’s been giving me nightmares ever since this whole sea serpent shit started. That I’d be in bed cuddling up with my spouse. Soon feeling a sort of falling sensation before hearing a big splash. Next thing I know, water starts flooding are rooms and I’m forced to watch Mikey drown. I’ve had that same dream so many times, I can’t tell what’s real life anymore.” “Whoa, calm down. Sure the chiefs got something going on to take out that terrifying tyrant of the deep.” “When, huh? When will, she actually do something about it? It’s been several months since that thing under us slithered its way in the lake. How much longer are we gonna have to live in fear like this?” “Easy. I’m sure she’ll deal with it soon. Just you wait.” The scientist inches away from the pair, not wanting to be anywhere near when the man beside her eventually cracks like an egg in her burrito.

Along the steels bridge does the scientist traverse through, her mind distracted pondering where the seventh sector might dwell in these subterranean caverns. It could be anywhere within these rocks for all she knows. There ain’t exactly any kinda signs pointing the way. Only course of action to take is to ask where the sector she seeks might be. It never hurts to ask for directions.

Wondering within the stalactite before her, Clara wonders inside and spot a line of young children following a woman across the opposing hallway. A peek within reveals kids and teens of all ages traverse throughout the halls entering and exiting the doorways. Flickering lights littering the ceiling of the lime lite corridors. Venturing through herself, she passes by tykes from her feet and some jocks towering her head. Doubt any of them know where the scientist is supposed to go. Perhaps someone of older stature may teach her the answer she seeks. “Excuse me.” she tries to greet a couple of teenagers, her words unfortunately falling to def ears. “Hello.” the scientist hopes to greet some kids, them simply ignoring her. “Hey.” she interjects, but like before, her words are ignored. Much to her dismay, any attempts to garter the children attention prove to fail as most of them either ignore her or simply can’t hear her words.

The halls show themselves nearly empty, Clara begins to run out of chances for answers. Its not until the rambunctious dash of a passing youth does an opportunity show itself. A lone woman runs across the hallway moments later in pursuit of the hyperactive kindergartner. A turn around the corner showed a branching hall, split into three separate paths. A sigh escapes the woman lips, knowing full well that she has lost the chase. In her moment of defeat, the scientist approaches and draws her attention with: “Everything okay.” “Yeah, just...The constant quakes have got the kids all wound up. But this ain’t nothing to the fights that broke out this past month.” “That bad, huh?” “I-I just don’t know what to do. I keep telling them that everything’s gonna be okay, but even I’m starting not to believe my own words. All the shaking, all the screaming, and all the panic. I’m not sure how much more I can take. I-...Hang on a second. Who- Who are you?” “Oh. Um, I-I literally just came here to ask for directions. You happen to know where sector 7 is at?” “Ugh, at this point, I don’t even know which direction north and south is. Just go through sector 2 and you’ll soon find you’re self at sector 7.” “Kay, thank. I’ll let you get back to your uh, child chasing, whatever.” With that, the scientist leaves the distressed teacher to her search. Sounds like this dilemma’s got everyone wound up tight. Seems like anyone around here could go off like a pack of dynamite at any moment. Might wanna bail fast before she feels the blunt end of an unsuspecting emotional explosion.

She follows the ladies directions to a tee, making sure to interact with very little as possible. With all the tension and stress in the air, a single nudge might just set anyone off. The scientist had shown to be lucky so far to come across the very least stable people, but she doesn’t wanna risk making a scene and causing a domino effect. The directions Clara had taken from the overwhelmed teacher proved to fault as she ends up nowhere near her desired destination, the flickering lights and random spouts of blackouts throughout the mall proving the notion. Ugh, haven’t these people ever heard of maps! Easy, Clara. Just relax. There has to be a better way to navigate this subterranean city. Let’s see, Trexy order to reroute the power to the town towards sector 7. Then all that needs to be done is find the stalactite with the brightest light. She dreads the trek she would have to take in accomplishing such a task, wondering in leaving her chimeric steed back in the comfort of her dorm room was an okay option to take. Poor girls been acting really tired all the time lately. She needs all the rest she can get. She just regrets how the incident the other day had disabled the tracks. And the carts looked so fun to ride.

Using her own method of navigation, Clara travels through the stalactite city, the power of the facilities being her guide. But her search begins to falter the further she traverses, making her question her own sense of direction further. Seems that talking to one of the emotionally volatile citizens is looking like a gambit the scientist is going to have to take. She begins to approach one of them, the woman looking on the burst of tears. In all honesty, she fair more favorable then the rest of the people around her. On the cusp of casting the dice and tapping her shoulder, she notices a radiant light bursting from one of the holes. A departure from the sorrowful women and a glance out the rocky window shows a bright stalactite in the midst of the city, its hole illuminating the most brilliant lime light among the entire scene. Not even a single bet is placed and the scientist had already hit the jackpot. With next to no haste, Clara pursues the light filled rock.

Among the brightly lit corridors of sector 7, Clara fancies herself a glances through the glass of a door, taking in the full view of the lab within. Just look at all of it. Machines and gizmos galore, batteries and steel abound, buttons and notches alike. The site of it all brings a sense of nostalgic euphoria to the scientist as she remembers the simpler times of conduction little more then temporal mathematics and nuclear equations. Collage sure was a blast, wasn't it?

What takes her attention the most however was the sizable piece ofsteel behind a set of boxes and metal parts, several cable and wire suspending the big chunk of unknown steel upon the roof. No doubt the battle sub the scientist surely seeks. Even from behind all the clutter, she can tell how sizable the vessel proves itself to be. Still, her view doesn’t show much. So many variable have yet to be accounted for. Best to sneak in and take in a closer view. A try of the knob reveals the doors to be locked. Seems these guys don’t want just anybody waltzing in. Fair enough. But there gotta be another way in. Maybe picking the lock might work? Nah, they might hear that. Come on, Clara. Gotta think of something. Hmm.

A lone mechanic opens the door, standing in the doorway while looking inward as a question escaping his lungs. “Going down to the vegi eats to get me some stir fry. You guys want anything?” “Nope.” “Naw.” “Nothing.” The denial for a meal reaching his hears, the worker absconds from the workplace for a bite to eat, the door behind him slowly closing. The door to the lab tempts to shut back, but a foot from the outside halts its eventual closing. Her entrance within secure, Clara sneaks within the confines of the laboratory, quietly shutting the door behind her. Once successfully inside, her first form of business is to hide from any prying eyes. Don’t want anybody to catch her taking a peek of their super weapon. Might get the wrong impression.

With swift foot, she delves behind a set of sizable wooden crates, just big enough to conceal her crouching person. From behind them, she takes another peak towards the ship under construction, this time with a much more generous view of the vessel as they work on the weaponry installed around the hull. Oh yeah. That steel puppy’s proving real huge. But that’s just mentioning the side of the ship. Wonder how much junk in the trunk there is? Another sneak across the lab does Clara take, shifting through machinery and big equipment to evade any of the employees gaze.

From behind a console does she manage to take in a view of the back, the behind of the sub proving to be quite wide indeed. Big enough to cram, say 29 people within the cabin. A mutated bear spider should be no problem making a cozy fit. Still, its a wonder how durable such an underwater weapon maybe, curious how well it'd fair in case the Canadians catch wise to her undersea exploits.

Through the lab she sneaks through once more, delving behind whatever may camouflage her presence. The scientist makes her approach to the subs metallic armor, careful to avoid the shiny shell giving away her reflection. A light tap of the hull proves the material to be quite naturally hard. Given the properties of the steel shell, she wagers for the sub to be made of...Chromium?...Titanium maybe? Either way, it proves strong, might actually stand a chance against the monster of the lakes crushing sharp toothed jaw. But even with the hardest metal installed, its what lies within the shell that counts. Might be a good idea to take a peek inside and see what kinda juice this baby runs on. A sneak around the submarine and she eventually comes across the hatch leading in, a mechanic and scientist walking out from the deck. Once the coast was clear, Clara quietly sneaks aboard.

Within the interior steel shell of the ship housed comforting seating and technological consoles. Though most of the consoles functions seems to escape the scientist knowledge, some of them do ring familiar to her. Pretty safe bet to say this baby runs on radioactive energy if they got a nuclear balancer installed. Good old element number 94. What else would power this thing?

Amidst her inspection, Clara begins to hear the echo of approaching footsteps and swiftly conceals herself. From behind one of the seats overlooking above, she watches as the mechanic and the scientist from earlier walk back in, their conversation echoing throughout the steel cabin. “Another test, huh?” the mechanic questions. “Yes. We want to see if the functions of the ship operate once the battery is installed. Care to oblige?” “Sure thing. Just say the word.” The male scientist below Clara checks out from the hatch, finding a pair of mechanics inserting a lime green cylinder within a slot of sorts near the back. Upon the cylinders insertion, the consoles and panels illuminate, enveloping the interior in their glow. “Alright, begin testing energy output.” Throughout the interior of the ship, the roof protrudes light from the fixtures above, the buttons laid strewn about the panels begin to rapidly flicker in numerous patterns. With the metal surrounding the cabin reflecting the numerous lights, it almost looks like a light show's going off in here. The dazzling light show ends all too quickly as the scientist has other tests to contact.

“Good, battery power seems to be flowing through the ship like kiwi green blood. Right, onto the next test. Begin engine start up.” Upon the command, the sound of an engines roar echoes across the steel of the ship. The male scientist below examines the interior hull closely, his face mere inches from the steel. “No vibration.” Withdrawing his head from the wall, he continues is analogy with: “Engine sounding optimal. Just one more test.”

Those words reaching the mechanics ears, an excited gasps leaves his mouth. “You don’t mean…” “Oh I mean.” In unison, the mechanic and the scientist spout forth a jolly declaration that echoes through the cabin. “Gyroscopic seating mechanism!” At a wonder what either could mean by that, the scientist above watches as both fly into the available seat like giddy children excited to go to an amusement park. Once their seat belts were fastened and butts firmly in place, the chairs placed across the cockpit begin to spiral in place, including the one our scientist was hiding behind. Both the sounds of the mechanic and the male scientist cheer bounce all across the cabin, Clara herself enduring to not make a peep in the midst of her dizzying spin as she hangs on for dear life. Please let this swirling nightmare come to an end soon. She fears that if a sound wasn’t going to escape from her mouth, the burrito she had for breakfast this morning might. Eventually, the seats begin to slow in their rotation, the cheers of the boys below calming the closer their stop comes. Once the whirlagig ends, they unhook themselves from the seats with jolly laughter escaping their lungs. Upon their exit of the sub, the cheer in their voices escapes alongside them. “Never get tired of doing that.” “So glad we installed that.” Once their departure from the sub proves certain, Clara falls from the height of the second deck and onto the hard floor of the first. Even in her dizzy haze, Clara finds it best to abscond from the interior of the sub before someone spots her, or worse, perform anymore stomach churning tests.

With haste, she attempts to sneak away from the sub and out the door, averting the gaze of the other scientists from behind the cover of machines and crates. But her dizzy spell proves to last longer then she initially had hoped, as she makes a less then graceful fall face first upon an unsuspecting console, drawing the attention of everyone in the lab.

Recovering from her slip, they begin to surround the downed scientist, suspicious and irritation painted upon their faces. “Who’s this.” “Young lady. This lab is for authorized personnel only.” “What are you doing here?” “Why’d you sneak in?” The scientist mind races to think of an excuse, her consciousness going at light speed. “Um, Uh...I-I kept hearing alotta things about this battle sub and wanted to sneak a peek of it for myself. Think-think you got room on the team for one more?” “No!” all of the say in unison. “What, come on. I know my way around a nuclear particle accelerator. Just ask the people over at the reactor. Everyone here would be fried alive if I didn’t step in.” she tries to back up. “We’ve never even seen you before until today.” “She’s gotta be bluffing.” “I thought Trexy was the one that stopped the reactor.” Of course. Figured that someone that they’ve never seen before just waltzed into the city claiming “Hey, I stopped your town from exploding into a mess of radioactive slag.” would be a massive pile to swallow.

Right upon the fear of them kicking her out of the lab for good, a southern drawn voice speaks out. “I can vouch to that.” Everyone's gaze turns to the entrance of the lab, finding Trexy leaning in the doorway. “Chief!?” “Holy shit!?” “When did she come in!?” “Wait, what did she say?” From the door does the chief let herself in, approaching Clara’s side as she continues with: “That huge meltdown the other day was quite the doozy if a say so myself. Lost a couple good men trying to fight it back.” Clara blushes when she feels the warm touch of her hosts palm upon her shoulder, hearing her commending praise. "She just swooped in and took to the console like a hawk with Einsteins brain, cooling the core down long enough for me to make repairs. Don’t know how much worse it’d get if this young lady didn’t step in. Doubt I’d wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for her.” Mix of surprise and disbelief wash over the cavalcade of mechanics and scientist, each giving their own comment upon this newly realized statement. “Is she serious?” “She’s gotta be. It came from chiefs own mouth.” “This lady actually stopped the meltdown?” “Just who is she.” Hearing their once rejecting scorn take a sudden turn, Clara turns to the woman that spun their accusations around and wonders: “Uh, not that I’m not thankful or anything, but how did you know I was here?” A light chuckles escapes from the chief lips before she explains herself. “He he he, sorta figured you couldn’t resist taken a peak of the battle sub. Saw how giddy you were gettin just lookin through the door. You say you had a Ph.d or something in nuclear physics, didn't ya?" "Wait, are you serious? You actually want me to work on the sub?" "Course. With you on the team, construction should go by real smooth and quick. Subs almost complete anyway. What'dya say?"

Clara ponders for a moment before giving the chief of the subterranean city an answer. Wondering whether to take the gambit of working on the sub for her own benefit and potentially risk any more lives with her meddling, or to take her departure right now and not waste another moment in the lives of these stalactite dwelling settlers. Her mind sort of made up, she lets Trexy know her answer. "Nnn...Sure thing. I'm game." "Ha ha! That's what like to hear." Trexy's site turns to the mob of mechanics and scientists before the pair, them hearing their chief finish with: "Now,I'll be coming back to check up on ya'll and see how the subs doing. You treat this young lady right, ya hear?" With those words having been said, Clara watches as the chief takes her leave from the laboratory.

"So guys. Whatcha want me working on? Engine? Battery? Power balance? I'm up for anything involving iso-" Upon her turn back towards the crowd from behind, she finds while some have simply gone back to work, other await with contemptuous glares aimed right in her direction. "Topes...Um..,Something I said?" One scientist begins to take his approach towards the young lady before him, giving her a strict warning. "Listen to me and listen well. The submarine that you bare witness to has been the result of the combined effort of everyone's blood, sweat, and tears, crafting this underwater weapon planned to eradicate the menace that threatens out very livelihoods. The engine alone born from tireless months of development." The scientist shadow enveloping Clara in a vial of darkness, he finishes is omen with: "The responsibility in seeing the beast of the deeps destruction rest on our shoulders. The lives of every single member of this cavernous community is left in our hands. You'll be assigned to regulating the batteries power as testing occurs. So with all that in mind, I would suggest you be as careful as possible, for if you make all our efforts in vain, then we will personally see to it you take the plunge into the awaiting jaws of death." His ominous threat having been delivered, the scientist returns to his duties. Clara is left to ponder upon the mans omen, pondering if it was the smartest decision to apply to the team in such a haste.

Aboard the vessel, she is tasked with regulating the power of the ship, her site glued to the monitor as she watches the bars and numbers steadily fluctuate. Behind her, a mechanic mans the side of the ship, his finger ready at the button. "Okay, ready to fire laser cannons. You all ready to go back there?" "Ye-yeah." Clara confirms. Her confirmation reaching his ears, the mechanics fingers swarm the panel.

Outside the front of the ship, the headlight like devices begin to glow a lime green luminescence, their light aimed towards a slab of concrete. The others around start to cautiously stand back as the hum of the sub sounds off.

"Readying cannon." Clara finds the bars and numbers on the monitor to begin to rise, the scientist quickly regulating the power so as not to overheat. "Fire."

The headlights up the front of the ship shoot out a concentration of radioactive rays towards the stone slate, the intensity of the beam blasting the hard rock to rubble. Upon seeing the rock reduced to nothing but bits and pieces, cheers begin to echo throughout the lab.

"Cannon test, successful." The mechanic turning towards the scientist, he gives her is praise with: "Nice work Clara." "He he, thanks..." she responds with a hint of nervousness. Glad to see things going smoothly so far. Hope the rest of the day proves to be just as calming.

The hours of the clock tick by, Clara still stuck manning the battery console as a bored sigh escapes her lungs. Well, it's not like she didn't hope for this. But all this inaction is making itself to be quite the dull slog. Upon her boredom, a set of scientist and mechanics scatter through the cabin, our scientist jolting awake upon the sound of their combined footsteps. Each of the group prepare themselves on the various consoles and panels set throughout the sub. Catching the attention of a passing scientist, she wonders: "What's going on?" "We're testing the turbo drive. See how well the engine and battery withstand." His answer said, he prepares at his station, leaving Clara to worry with the upcoming task at hand.

Before the test could be initiated, the passing mingles of the scientist and mechanics nearby reaches her ears and can't help but listen. "Honestly, if you ask me. I'm kinda scared. What if all our work on this baby for the past year just isn't enough. That all of us are just doomed to descend into the watery abyss below." "Relax, it ain't gonna come to that. With all the weapons we loaded on this bad boy, that sea serpent down there won't stand a chance." "Yeah, but what if we don't finish it in time. What if the next quake hits us and we all end up taking the big plunge." "Look, construction is nearly finished anyway. All that's left on the table is just a few more tests. I grantee that this ship will be ready to hit the water by next week." "Hope so. Don't know how much longer we'll last." All this worry and doubt reaching Clara's ears, the thought of inserting herself in these peoples plight crop up once again.

In her pondering worry, she fails to catch one of the scientist announce to the entire cabin. "Okay, begin starting engine." The crew prepares for the test of the turbo drive to begin, the sound of the engines roar snapping Clara back to reality. Before her, the console shows the power output rapidly on the rise. The scientist balancing to accommodate for the sudden power increase. With her input, the numbers and bars begin to decline, showing the balance to be in place. "Output fully balanced." she announces. "Good. begin to activate turbo drive." Several button presses and clicks could be heard through the interior, the sound of the engine beginning to grow in intensity. Clara goes into overdrive to keep the turbo from burning out the engine and power, her fingers frantically racing across the panel. After a short while, one of the other scientists hears the engine revving at its loudest and declares: "Shut it down!" Upon those orders, the crew quickly fulfills them, the sound of the engine slowly dying down. The numbers on Clara's screen rapidly declining, an exhausted breathe escapes her as her head tilts back. Getting kinda rusty at this. Haven't gotten the chance to practice in awhile. As she rests, the rest of the crew await for the results of the test from the lead scientist. "Well done. Test of the turbo drive has proven to be a success." This declaration said, a wave of cheers echo through the cabin, Clara giving her own mild shout.

At last, the day has been burnt, the scientist returns to her dorm. She wastes no time in flopping down upon the bed, the soft top of the mattress being quite the welcoming relief. In her exhaustion, she feels the warm touch of Angelo's fuzz, glancing over to her side to find her steed six eyes to be staring at her. With a heart filled touched like that, she gives the ursa arachnid a soft smile and a loving head rub. Honestly with today, she could uses such a cute site. With the daunting task she likely has to put herself through, she wonders if she should just leave the job in more capable hands. Quite lucky she hasn't caused someones demise for how long she's meddled into their business. Don't really know how long that luck streak may last though. Chaos theory could still spring its ugly head any moment now.

Those paranoid thought rambling in her mind, she thinks that maybe she spent enough time dawdling around in these radioactive rocks. Lovely as the scenery may be, it might not be best to waste anymore time then she already has. These people might be able to kill the lethal leviathan below without her help. I mean the subs loaded with a radioactive ray gun for god sake. Once the morning springs, she'll climb out and it the trail to the north. Her mind set, she drift off into the comforting arms of slumber once more.

[lillaxtrigger]

Young hope: Chapter 15

The clear night sky befalls upon a brightly lit manor. Its shine reflecting off the dozens of vehicles littered about its massive circular driveway. One more car joins their ranks, its simplistic design contrasting between the two luxurious automobiles it parks between. Out from its steel shell arose the blue boy and his family, dressed to partake in the Gala. “Wow. It’s so gorgeous. You really got lucky, Tore. Scoring the daughter of an eccentric trillionaire?” the mother compliments. “Eh, seems like kind of a bitch to me. Honestly think you could do better.” Mally remarks. “By the way, how did you and that Renee girl meet in the first place?”. Both ladies turn to Tore, the blue boy busy adjusting his tuxedo collar to keep from choking him. “Ah...Ya...Ya know…At-At...At school.” he boy tries to feign while loosening his collar. “Getting enough oxygen there?” Mally worries. “Yeah...Nnn, Fine…”. He finally adjusts his collar to a more comfortable hold, wondering to himself; “Why did Cayenne makes this thing so tight?’.

“Tore, come in. Have you arrived at the manor yet?” Kingsley’s voice rings through a hidden earpiece. Pressing down upon the communicator, he responds with: “Yep. Right when the fires are hot, too.”. “Okay, now when you get in. You know what to do, right?”. “Pfft, course. I do the thing with the- the other thing, then I...I walk around for a bit. Hoard the food. Dumm… Sneak out through the back and fly in the night sky like a sharply dressed glowing bandit.”. “You forgot it, didn’t you?” Cayenne guesses through the earpiece.”. “Nooo...That-that is it, right?”. “Not even close, you dumbass.” “Alright, listen. I’ll go through it, one more time. But you gotta do your best to remember while you’re inside.” Kingsley offers. “Gotcha.”

“Uh, Tore?” he hears his sister wonder. Ahead, he finds her and their mom gazing awkwardly towards the boy. “Who are you talk to?” “Oh, um, uh. J-just practicing my lines when I run into Renee’s dad. Gotta keep up good impression, he he...” Both ladies shrug the answer off and start to head inside. Tore letting out a relieved sigh as he follows close.

Not to long ago, the same blue boy stood in front of a mirror, being fitted for his snazzy navy blue tux. Cayenne adjusts parts of his suit so that it may properly fit, Tore complaining: “Agh. The sleeves are too stiff, the collar is so itchy, the waist is chaffing me… This whole monkey suit is unbearable! How do people stomach wearing these things!?” “Just suck it up, ya damn baby.” Cayenne retort. His discomfort causes him to glace towards Kingsley and ask: “Why do I have go to this dumb ball again, ya know aside from me...Nn, screwing up and stuff?” “Because, I have reasons to suspect that Renee might be going through some… Umm, parental problems, lets call them. And need you to be our eyes on the inside to catch the act.” “Okay, but why at this Gala thing?” “See, Rich parents are always super strict when it comes to their kids during big events like this. Heck, when I was young, my mom wouldn’t let me out of the bathroom until every detail was perfect. Every. Detail. One of Renee’s parents may snap at her in private and need you to catch whoever it is in the act.” “Rrr, but I don’t wanna go to some fancy mansion party. They’re not the fun kinda parties with the overly frosted cookie cakes with demeaning swear words and clearly drunken clowns juggling sticks of lit dynamite.” “What...kind of party are you suggesting?” “My 12th birthday. Now that was a blast.” “Well, maybe you should think of that next time you decide to crash into someones personal life.” Cayenne suggest. “But didn’t you try and do the same thi-” Before he could finish, Cayenne tightens Tore’s bow tie, choking the boy.

After loosening his collar, he than wonders aloud to Kingsley. “I don’t get it. If you think something bad’s happening to her. Why not just pull her out, asap?” “I’d love to, but you might’ve figured out by now that the Buxaplenty’s are a very rich family. They can by off lawyers and judges to free them from most kind of scrutiny, which is why we need to catch them on video. Because if there’s one thing they can’t buy off, its hard evidence. The boy genius then pulls out a floral pin, telling his agent: “This pin will give us video feed of the inside. Once we record it, we can work on getting Renee out of there. This situation will require you to have the upmost diligence if we wanna pull this off. Got it?”. “Diligence?...Diligence…That some kind of pickle?”. Frustrated, Kingsley lets out a sigh, deciding instead to rephrase with: “Just- just sneak around and try not to get caught.”. “Wait a minute...You mean like a secret agent?” Tore gleefully questions. Tore than revels in the prospect of being an undercover agent. Sneaking around facilities, gathering intel, ton and tons of nifty gadgets, famous tropes reminiscent of the spy film genre. An enriching fantasy that rapidly excites the blue boy, making him loudly giddy with uncontrollable enthusiasm. “Well, more of a mundane spy than and agent really, but-” Kingsley tries to deflate, but the blue boy was already far too thrilled as he readies to scream out. “I’m gonna be like James Bond!”. He flies out from the changing room in an eager rush, the sound of his cheering echoing in the proceeding halls. “We are so fucked.” Cayenne remarks. “I’m...Well...he might...Pull a surprise out of his pocket, um...who knows?”. He than finds the girl gazing at him with an unconvinced glare, making Kingsley giving out a nervous laugh before glaring back towards the corridor.

Entering the estate, the family is taken aback by the luxurious décor strewn about the entry hall. The golden chandler that suspends atop the ceiling, its own lights sparkling off its polished finish. The velvet red carpeting laid about the polished marble floor beneath their feet. The fancy platters sporting various miniature hors d’oeuvres ready to be consumed. The large hand painted murals that depicted their aristocratic hosts hung about the walls. All of it giving a such a sense of authentic elegance amongst the countless guests within. “Whoa…talk about pulling all the stops.” Mally comments right after blowing out an impressed whistle. The mother glances over towards the left staircase, noticing a middle aged woman beside the railing and exclaiming with a gasp: “Is that roller blading stunt girl Molly wheelz?”. Mally looks towards the opposite end of the hall, spotting a red headed lady, gushing: “Oh my god! It’s the skating champ, Red thunder!”. Both ladies waltz towards their respective ideals, leaving their blue boy to his own devices.

With a thickly posh english accent, Tore relays to his comrades: “This is agent bluebird reporting. I have successfully infiltrated the facility and ready to proceed with gathering intelligence. Do you copy, orange dingaling?”. “You don’t have use an accent, ya know? You’re not exactly undercover. Also, orange dingaling?” As he hears Cayenne mocking laughter in the background of the feed, he turns is attention over towards the platter table. “Just...walk around and see if you can tail either of Renee’s parents.” Kingsley commands. “Affirmative, proceeding to begin mission.”

The guests pluck from the gallery of hor d’oeuvres as they pass through. Tore lifts his head from under the table, gazing into the delicious array of savory snacks. He picks one from the delicate silver platter in the middle of the table, licking the tiny entree and coming to the obvious conclusion: “Detecting no signs of poison.”. With that theory confirmed, the blue boy proceeds to grasp the entire tray and loudly scarf down the rest of the hor d’oeuvres down his gullet. After swallowing the array of bite sizes snacks, he lowers the silver platter, exhaling a hearty sigh. He then notices some of the surrounding guests staring at him astonished and some with outright disturbed gazes painted across their faces. With a nervously guilty giggle, he lowers himself back under the table. Looking out from under the cloth covered table, he blots away when nobody is looking.

In his escape, he reflects to himself with the inner thoughts of: “That was kinda close. Probably best if I keep a low profile. Don’t wanna blow this whole thing by running into someone important.” As if the whims of fate read his mind like a best selling novel, Tore runs into a wayward blonde dressed in sea foam green. Shaking the crash off, he finds his faux mistress sat upon the velvet carpeting. “Oh man, so sorry!” he apologizes. Rising from the floor, he helps Renee up, asking the daughter of the host: “You okay?”. “Yeah. I’m- I’m fine. How are you enjoying the gala?”. “Oh um. It’s uh...It’s nice. Really fancy, very shiny. Mostly um...nnnnice... Oh who am I kidding. I’ve been here less then 10 minutes and I’m already bored out of my skull.” “Ugh. Tell me about it. Every year, my dad throws one of these stupidly massive balls in hopes of gathering more investors for the family. To be honest, I’d rather stay in bed and snuggle up with a good book.” “I hear ya. I’d rather go fly out and train somewhere than stand around these snooty stiff. Like that guy over there.”. Looking to where the blue boy was pointing towards, Renee’s fixates her gaze upon an elderly gentleman engaging in conversation with a fellow aristocrat. “Just look at him. Stuffy, looks full of himself, and probably paid to have the definition of fun surgically removed from his crusty ass brains. He’s- He’s like- He’s like “Excuse me fine gentleman, would any of you like to consult about the how many golden statues I possess to compensate for the fact that I have lost control of my bladder.” Tore jests with in mocking elderly tone. Some of the guests could hear the couple quietly giggling to themselves. The boy then spots another aristocrats in his sight, pointing over and telling Renee to: “Oh oh, over there! Look!”. Glancing in said direction, she spots a rather stuffy looking couple. “Bet you can’t do it.” “No. No. I-I shouldn’t.” “Come on. You know you wanna.” “Hmm...Oh I know. “I say honey. There is a rather awful smell coming from you’re twisted beard. By any chance have you been using gorilla snot as a hair gel?” “Why yes I have dear. And I dare say, you look rather horrid in your obviously fake eyelashes.” There giggling begins to grow louder, them trying their best not to burst out in laughter. Renee spots another potential vctim of their mockery and points over, asking: “Oh god. Look over there.”. She has her faux boyfriend look towards a rather overweight individual, his suit obviously to small to fit with the buttons struggling to keep it together. “Ooh ho ho wow. Okay, I got a good one. Listen to this.” Clearing his throat, the boy then lets out high pitched mocking tone: “Even everyone. Don’t mind me. I’m just trying to keep my buttons from flying off past Jupiter.” Both of them could barely contain their glee, threatening to burst out in laughing fits. The fat bloke who they mocked captures their attention, saying in the exact tone Tore had given him: “Well, I never. My tone is never that high and my suit is rather durable, thank you.” As the overweight bastard takes his leaves, Tore and Renee stare into one another before they could contain their laughter no more. The guest around them take note of the couples laughter, looking rather embarrassed just being near them. Their chortling dying down, Renee lets out a sigh, desiring: “Yeah...Honestly I just want this night to be over.” “Me too. But, luckily I got something to keep me from blasting through the roof, screaming bloody murder.” “What is it?”. “Ya see, there’s this plan that-” “Don’t tell her the plan, you dumbass!” Cayenne screams through the earpiece. “Ow! Why?” “Tore. We still don’t know what’s exactly up with Renee and her parents. And if you tell her, she might be unwillingly coaxed into spilling the beans.” Kingsley finishes in a much calmer tone. The boy complies, but not without a hint of reluctance. “Mm...Okay.”. “Who are you talking to?” he hears Renee question. Looking back, he finds the blonde staring at him with a worried gaze. “Uhh...”. Gotta think of an excuse fast. “My...My hand.”. Perfect. “You’re hand?”. “Yes. It has a lot to say. Do you want to hear?” he offers, presenting his palm. “Uh...No thanks.”

An uncomfortable pause passes between the two, both internally pleading for anything to break it. Come on, something happening already, please! A thought that loom in the blue boys head as he works up a nervous sweat “Hello children.” he hears a feminine voice greet. Oh thank god. Looking aside, they witness a well dressed blonde woman approach. Renee’s mom? “How are you two enjoy the gala?”. “Uh...It’s great.” the blue boy mentions. “Yeah, parties great mom.” Renee respond. “Great, glad to see you kids having a fun time. But, you two should probably behave yourselves. Everyone is watching you two.”. The daughter quickly withdraws her joyful demeanor, complying with: “O-Oh. Right...”. “I’d like you to come with me dear. There are some people I’d like to introduce you to.”. “Of course.”. Before walking off with her mother, she turns towards her faux boyfriend, ending with: “See you later.” Seeing the happiness quickly drain from Renee leads Tore to think: “Hmm...That was odd. Did Kingsley say which parent was causing her trouble? ...Meh, I’ll just spy on her and see what happens.”.

Watching as the blue boys exploits play out, Kingsley and Cayenne eye the monitor showing the feed within his lab. “So, which one do you think it might be?” she asks him. “Pardon?” “The abusive piece of shit. Which one is it?” “Oh, uh...To be honest, I’m not really certain. For all we know, it could be the both of them. We’re basically going in blind as bats.” “Oh...Five bucks says its the dad.” Another moment of awkward pause passes, thankfully not as painfully long as Cayenne swiftly adds the follow up question: “By the way. How’d you manage to convince your folks to let you do all this?”. “I...I fed them the excuse that I needed to work on a school project and needed peace and quiet to focus.” Cayenne keeps a chuckle from escaping her lungs and questions: “You...feeding them a lie? Yeah, right. Doubt you of all people can lie. Come on, what did you actually do?” Kingsley fails to give her a response, only continuing to stare into the video feed with a worried glare. “Oh shit. You’re actually serious, aren’t you?”. Letting out a weary sigh, he answers: “Cayenne, it hurts that I have to lie to them just to pull all this off. I’m...scared, that this whole family grudge thing would make them force me to never speak to her again. And I can’t risk that. Especially now when Renee might be in danger.”. “Damn...You must really like her, don’t you?”. “To be honest, I’m praying that this whole parental...abuse thing to just be my own delusional paranoia. For one of the few times in my life. I’m hoping that I’m wrong.”

Atop the manor staircase, Tore slid across the 2nd floor balcony overhanging the hall like a crawling worm. He inches towards the railing and looks through the bars, scanning across the 1st floor among the countless guests. The boy spots his fake girlfriend alongside her mother, relaying with a couple of aristocratic gentleman. “They probably wouldn’t do it out the open. Could cause a scene. What to do?” he wonders aloud. Behind him, some of the passing guest could help not but stare at Tore, wondering why the boy was laying upon the velvet carpeting upon his stomach. “Might be best to tail them and wait for when they’re alone to catch em in the act. Yeah, that sounds like the perfect plan.”. Spotting both ladies walking off, he bounces up from the carpet and declares. “Uh oh, looks like they’re on the move. Better get going myself.”. The blue boy then vaults over the golden railing and drops down to the second floor. He spooks some of the guests upon landing on the marble surface, but ignores their shock and continues on with his noble efforts to stalk the hosts daughter.

Tailing the mother daughter duo through the home, he hides behind behind various furniture as they walk through the abode. He literally jumps behind one of the chairs to take cover, alluding at the very least Renee’s and her moms gaze. Seems like they didn’t notice him.

The boy then dives down under another table, looking under the cloth to find the pair still unaware of his near presence. So far so good. Ready to move, he hits his head on the table in his haste, rubbing his top whilst trying not to audibly scream. Tore than crawls out from under the table and dashes away towards his pursuit.

From behind something, Tore eyes his targets as they walk away. Looks like they haven’t noticed him just yet. This spy stuff is pretty easy, actually. Thought it might be more exciting than this. Just then, he feels the thing he was hiding behind begin to move, finding that it was in fact a bulky looking individual, who turned towards the boy with an upset looks. Tore nervously laughs as he backs away from the gentleman. Looking around, he can’t spot Renee our her mom anywhere in site. Shit. Did he lose them?

He hastily pushes himself through the crowd to try and catch up to the Renee and her mom, but fails to find either. Where did they go? Can’t really fly. That would throw stealth out the window entirely. Perhaps he needed another moment atop the stairs to find where they were departing towards. But before he can consider going back up, he spots Renee’s mother amongst the crowd, however with Renee herself nowhere near. Figuring that he might have lost his false beloved, he might as well tail her mom to see if he can pick up any context clues or for the chance she might meet up with her daughter once more. Who knows, really.

Pursuing the mother, he finds her walking beside a group of an aristocratic guests, chatting to one another about um… I don’t know. Something boring or money, stuff like that, who cares. All that matters now is tailing the misses without getting caught.

Going up a set of stairs, the group doesn’t spot their spy, hanging from the side of the case by one of the steps. As they pass through, he can’t help but hear in their conversation, which of course to him goes in one ear and out the other. Ugh, these people are so boring. Why can’t any of these guy talk about something fun for once? Like cartoons, ice creams, video games, an exploding clown, or the hordes of hell on mars, something dammit! Stop being a bunch of boring douche bags! Thoughts that cloud his mind as he’s forced to listen, failing to catch one of them unwittingly stamping on his fingers. He covers his mouth with his hand, to keep his screams of pain from escaping. Soon, he plummet down and hits the ground with a loud thud, catching the groups attention. They look down to what might have made such a crash, only to find nothing of the sorts. Shrugging off the thud, they continue up. Tore hiding behind the descending hall, rubbing his stamped on fingers.

Passing by a decorative cabinet full of priceless glass figures of marine life, they fail to notice the blue boy eyeing them from the atop the cabinet. Getting down from the cabinet, he is about to head out, when something within the cabinet catches his attention. It was tiny glass dolphin figurine irradiating rainbow colors. Oh my god, its so cute. No! Now is not the time to be admiring marine shaped crafts of glass workmanship! There’s a mission to be had. Breaking his gaze away from the crystal mammal, he continues to his goal of pursue the Buxaplenty wife.

Catching up, he finds the group of snobs to have seemingly broken off from the misses, Renee’s mother absent from their group. He looks about to in an effort to try and find her once more. Thankfully, he manages to spot her nearby. It looks like she’s talking to somebody. Please let it not be anymore stiff. Approaching from behind the corridor, he can hear the mother in the middle of a conversation with one of her guests. “Oh its no problem really. I’m happy you got to meet one of your idles.”. “It was really fun to get to know her. I’ve been a fan of hers since I was a kid.” the other guest mentions. He swears the person she’s talking with sounds incredibly familiar. Peeking out, he finds that Renee’s mom is in fact talking to his own. “Really, we invite tons of stars here every year. If our kids are still dating by around next year, we can arrange for some others you want.” “Just like that? You guys must live like kings. And you have such a charming daughter to boot.” “Oh yes. We’re quite proud of our little Renee. She’s been keep up with her grades constantly since we transferred her to public school to keep ahead of the curb.”. “She works so hard. I wish I could give her more time to do the things she loves.”. “Oh yeah. My kids are really something special too. Helping a lot of people and saving plenty more. They’ve grown to be so strong and courageous. It’s too bad Roy couldn’t make it here. Really I couldn’t asks for anything more out of my family...Except maybe for my husband to visit more. He’s never really around as much as he should be.” “Ugh. I wish my husband wasn’t around as much.” “Why’s that?” “Oh, its- its nothing.” “Nu-uh. There’s obviously something.” “No really. There isn’t. Honest.” “Come on. Are kids are dating, we might as well get into the juicy bits. So spill it.” With a disgruntled sigh, Renee’s mother opens with: “My husband is...very stressful to deal with. He’s always been so full of himself. Like I think he genuinely cares more about his wealth and family statue over his own family. Its gotten so bad, that...I...started seeing another man behind his back...” Near speechless, the blue haired mom breaks through, mentioning: “Really?...I...If it’s gotten that bad, than why don’t you divorce him?” “You’re kidding me? You want me to divorce from one of the richest business tycoons on the planet? Heh heh heh...Yeah, right. He’d destroy me in a legal case and take everything I have. Even poor Renee. I can’t bear to put her through any more then what she’s been through.”

Hearing all this, Tore retreats out from the corridor and away from the mothers. “Guess I had Renee’s mom pegged all wrong. She’s actually kinda nice. But if its not her, then that just leaves out...Oh no...” He hurries through the hall, hoping to quickly discover Renee once more.

And sure enough, he finds her, unfortunately with her father. Seeing both of them head down towards a less than crowded hall, he figures that this might be the moment he’s been waiting for. Glancing behind the corridor, he prepares himself with his fake accent: “Time for Agent Bluebird to do what he does best. Check to see if everything is in working order. Floral pin camera, check. Communications, check. Determination...Check-a-roony. Then I’m all set. It’s time to activate stealth mode.”

Back in the lab, Kingsley and Cayenne having listened to the conversation. “Well, guess the moms all clean, making the only abusive piece of shit to be...” Cayenne guesses. “Her dad. I should have known it was him. He can’t be pulling Renee away from the party without a reason. This might be it. I don’t think I can watch.” “Kingsley.” “You’re right. You’re right. Need to pull myself together. Okay, with the floral pin in check, it should be ready to record right about...” the boy relays typing away at his computer. With one more press of the button, a red circle appears on the upper left of the video feed. “Now.” “Damning evidence, here we come.” Just then, they hear the lab door open. Turning about, they see Kingsley’s mom about to walk down. “Hi pumpkin.” she cheerfully greets. Kingsley swiftly turns off the monitor and speaker, both he and Cayenne scramble through the lab in a panic.

When his mom comes down, she finds her son tinkering underneath a piece of machinery, Cayenne keeping up the heavy metal up so he can work. “Oh hi, Cayenne. Didn’t know you were down here.”. “Hey, Ms. S. Just helping Kingsley with his project.” she responds. “That’s so sweet. Um, sorry for the little intrusion, Kingsley. I just need to get something your dad left in here. I promise I’ll be really quick.”. “Aight mom.”. Under the large piece of construction, Kingsley pretends to be busy, the casting shadow hiding his nervous sweat quite well. “The fuck do we do now?” Cayenne whispers, trying to keep the mother from hearing. “Don’t worry. As long as the computer isn’t shut off, it should still be recording the footage. As long as Tore doesn’t screw things up on his end, we should be fine.”

In the lonely hallway, Renee and her father walk along through the well decorated corridors. The fixtures above shining upon the nervous sweat that was drip down her head. They however, do not notice their blue sneaking pursuer, who was quietly singing to himself the theme of mission impossible. Swiftly, he sneaks about the halls, hiding behind the fancy décor laid strewn about the hallway.

Seeing them turn the corner, he follows ahead, but bumps into a wayward stand with a priceless vase atop that was about to fall over. The boy tries to catch the vase to keep it from shattering upon marble floor, juggling it as he tries to keep a grip on the well polished piece of expensive pottery. Finding his grip, he quickly places the vase onto the pedestal and backs away from the worthwhile décor. Taking his leave, he does not notice the pottery falling to the ground with a shatter.

From around the corner, he notices one of the doors open quiet a crack. Approaching the door, he could hear the sound of scolding coming from the other side. Peeking within, Tore finds Renee father fuming at his daughter, Renee herself looking like she’s on the verge of tears. “The way you acted in front of the aristocrats was utterly appalling. Mocking our guests in front of everyone, such an embarrassment.” the father barked. “I-I’m sorry. I promise I won’t act that way again. Please, just calm down, I-”. Before she could finish apologizing, the father smack his daughter across the face, Tore shocked by the sudden attack. As Renee rubs the red spot the strike had left behind, she hears her father continue with: “I thought I taught you better than to act out in public. Are you trying to soil our families reputation?”. Angered by his response right after his assault, she barks back, questioning: “Is that all you care about anymore? Your precious family reputation instead of your actual family?”. Hearing his daughter talk back to him makes the raging father strike his daughter once more, enough to make the girl almost well up in tears. The site makes the blue boy tighten his grip upon the elegant wooden doorway, enough to quietly crack the engraved wood. “Where did you get the spine to talk back to me like that? You been drifting towards the realm of disrespect ever since you’ve been transferred to public school. You are going to straighten up this pitiful excuse for an act and apologize to for your rude behavior. Do you understand me?”. “No...”. “What? Young lady. I demand your respect right this instant!” the enraged father screams. “Why should I respect someone who demands for it? Someone who strikes his own daughter to force her to?”. That statement was the final straw. The fathers tighten his fists in a rage in preparation for one more strike. He readies to strike her with all he’s got, aiming his swing straight down towards Renee. It’s at this moment that Tore has run out of patients, refusing to watch this horror show of parental abuse no more. He burst through the door, dashing straight towards the abusive piece of shit. The father turns around wondering who dares interrupt him. Just when he sees Tore right in front of him, he’s met with a face full of the boys hard fist. The powerful swing was strong enough to send Renee’s father flying into the wall. The entire bedroom shook upon the fathers grizzly impact, lodging him in the wooden wall. Before Renee could process what transpired, Tore tosses her on his back and bolts away. A moment after their escape, the father opens his one bloodshot eye, a growling rage escaping from his lungs.

As they rush through the eloquent halls, Tore presses his finger upon his earpiece, begging: “Come on, someone pick up. Anyone?”. “Wait, were you talking into an earpiece earlier? Who are you even trying to even get a hold of?” the blonde demands him to answer. Hearing no one on the other line, he responds to her with: “Grr. No time to explain. Got find a way out fast. Where’s the nearest window?”. “Its around the corner, but what are you-”. Before Renee could ask a follow up question, Tore quickly turns the sharp corner.

She finds them heading towards a closed window leading out into the night sky. Concerned how her ride isn’t exactly slowing to a halt, she worries aloud: “Slow down, we’re gonna crash right through!”. Right when they were about crash through, the blue boy blast a hole in the wall. The dozens of guests in the backyard of the manor glanced towards the nearby explosion, including Mally and her mom. They watch as Tore leaps out from the smoke with his supposed girlfriend and takes off into the night sky.

Mally and their mom looked at one another and knew exactly what they needed to next. They need to make their escape right this second, before somebody pipes up. But before they could even move an inch, everyone hears someone screaming from inside the manor. The smoke clearing, everyone behold there eyes upon the host of the gala, his face red from not only the attack, but from the fuming rage irradiating form his being. Like this asshole looked like a messed up red beat, he was so fucking angry. Mr. Buxaplenty takes in as much breath as he possibly can and roars out: “That blue bastard flew off with my DAUGHTEEEEEEEER!!!!!”. His roar echoes passed the manor, blowing the leftover smoke surrounding him away. The mans breath returning, roughly turning into a low key growl as he shifts his gaze over towards the two ladies. Once he regains the strength to scream once more, he thrust his accusing finger towards them and shouts at the top of his lungs: “Those two….GET THEEEEEEM!!!!”. Dozens of well suited guards begin to pour out into the backyard and make their charge towards Mally and her mother. The guards on the approach, Mally herself pulls out the grapplyo that Hank had lent her to test. Guess now is a good time as any. She tosses the gadget towards one of the approaching security, slugging one of them right in the face. The yo yo returning, she finds not a single stretch on the wheel. Quite the durable piece of work.

Mally then throws her grapplyo towards another guard, the gadget entrapping the watchmen in her grip. The pixie dressed skater slams the patrolman towards his fellow co workers, all the well suited guards being thrashed down like a hit and run massacre, only the car being one another. Retracting the yo yo, she wonders how strong the gadgets string actually is. Hank, don’t fail now.

Looking towards the fountain, she soon is about to test that theory when she grabs her moms arm and starts to rush towards the decorative water spire. Mally throws her yo yo onto the fountain, and like Hank said, stuck to the drizzling spire like radical sticky tape. She than tugs hard upon the grapplyo’s end, flinging them around the fountain and past the security team. Landing upon the ground, they head down the side of the manor with the patrol on their tail.

In front of the manor, they try to look for their car, looking among the dozens of fancy automobiles. “Do you remember where we parked?” the mom wonders. “Not a clue.”. “Over hear!” a wayward voice calls out. From behind one of the decorative bushes on the side of the front yard, they see a hand waving over to them. With security closing in, they don’t have much choice but to run for the stranger.

Jumping behind the foliage, the security team spreading out to search for them. Behind the bush, they are greeted with the misses of the manor. “Mrs. Buxaplently? What are you-”. “Shh.” she hushes. After looking over the bush, she feels around the ground until grasping at a hidden noose under the grass. Pulling upon the rope, she lifts up the lid to a hidden passage way. “Get going.”. As the both of them climb down, the blue haired mother stops to asks the Mrs. Buxaplenty: “What about you?”. “I wish I could, but I can’t. Who knows what he might try if I run off too. Just get going. Hurry.”. Climbing down the tunnel, their savior closes the passage lid.

Kingsley mother digs around an assortment of gadgets in her search, Kingsley himself still pretending to work on his supposed project. The boy genius begins to get anxious, the thoughts of what he might be missing start swelling in his head. Cayenne hears him quietly groan to himself, whispering to him: “Dude, chill the fuck out. She might hear you.”. “I know. I’m just getting kinda nervous. Our agent is out there blind with no directions at all. Who knows what he might do without us.”. “Just relax, sure she won’t be in here for much longer.”. “But its nearly been 10 minutes. And who knows how much longer my mom might be in here.”. “Found it!” they hear her call out. The mom pulls from the pile a pronged fork like gadget. “Sorry for bothering you so much, sweetie. I’ll leave the two of you alone now.”.

As soon as the mom shuts the door behind her, the two of them rush towards the computer. Turning on the monitor, they see the feed showing them a birds eye view of the city. “What is...What’s happening? Why is he leaving the party?” Kingsley wonders. “Oh, what the hell did that dumbass do now?” Cayenne curses. Turning the microphone on, they ready to speak into the microphone once more.

Up in the starless sky, Tore flies through the city air with Renee upon his back like a flying chauffeur, healing the wounds her father inflicted. “You okay?” he asks her. “I think I am.”. The blue boy starts to hear is friend through his earpiece once more, Kingsley relaying with: “Tore, come in. Tore, do you respond?”. “Kingsley? Finally. Why’d you black out on me, man?”. “Wait, Kingsley? Was that who you were talk to earlier?” Renee sternly questions. “Is that Renee? Why are the both of you flying away from the party?”. A nervous giggle escaping his mouth, he begins to admit with: “So, I might have took the plan in a slight turn, uh...”. “What did you do?”. “Nothing much...Just...punched Renee’s dad into a wall is all.”. “What!” Kingsley exclaims. “Holy shit.” Cayenne laughs. “And I might have snatch his daughter away in my panic.” Tore continues. “Oh my god.” Kingsley groans. “Fucking hell.” Cayenne chortles. “Ahem!” the blue boy hears his passengers cough. Looking over, he finds Renee’s patients quickly draining, him only giving her a nervous laugh in response as he turns back. “Point being...We might need a place to hide...Like ASAP.”. “Uh...You know what, maybe you should just come back to the manor. Just...give me a moment to prepare.” Kingsley tells him. “Prepare for what?”.

“Kingsley Spicer! I cannot believe what I have just heard you say!”. In the lab, Kingsley was confronting bout of his parents, having just told them about his affairs with the Buxaplenty’s daughter. Obviously, they are very pissed, Kingsley drowning in a cold sweat facing their judgmental glares. Cayenne stands to the side, watching the entire shit show before her unfold. “How long have you been going out with the daughter of our bitter rivals behind our back?” she fumes. “Well...It’s...b-been about several months now. But I wouldn’t have to lie if I didn’t really like her.” their son tries to quell. “Buddy. Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?” his father sternly questions. Too nervous to respond, the only sound he could muster was a faint groan. “This is unbelievable. I didn’t even think you could lie to us like this. Just what other stuff are you keeping from us?” the mother wonders. “Nnn...we’re...not actually working on a school project.”. After a disappointing sigh, his dad asks the follow up question: “Then what have you been doing down here all night?”. Although he’s quite reluctant to show them, he’s got no other avenue to take.

On the monitor, they review the footage that Tore had acquired, watching Renee’s father not only scold, but strike his own daughter. The parents are left mortified, reeling back with every strike. Kingsley can’t help but clench his fist, the site of seeing his beloved being hurt like this. It truly awakened a deep feeling in his heart. Upon seeing their agent strike her father towards the wall, Cayenne whistles and remarks: “Damn. That had to hurt.”. With all that seen, Kingsley turns off the monitor and turns to his parents. “Now you see why I had to set all this up? I didn’t want to lie to you guys, honest. But the thought of the girl I love going through all of this. I...I just couldn’t take it! I had to do something, anything!”. Both of his parents hear their boy begin to whimper, the tears swelling from his eyes. “I’m so sorry about lying to you both, I-” the boy cries, tightly shutting his eyes in remorse. “Kingsley, stop, please.” his mom begs. The boy opens his eyes, staring at his parents as he hears his dad follow with: “You don’t have to apologize to us. We ain’t not mad at you anymore.”. “Someone you loved dearly was in danger and you did whatever it took to help them. You should never regret that.” his mom declares. Kingsley was truly relieved. Hearing his parents not only understand, but encourage him to follow his heart and rescue his love made him let out quite the euphoric sigh.

“Uh, by the way. If you two were down here all night, than who was capturing the footage?”. Just then, they heard the basement door swing open, looking over to see their blue agent in the doorway. “Evening ladies and gentleman. Agent Blue bird is back from his daring mission of undercover espoinaAAAGH!” Tore announces in the spy accent, but is quickly interrupted when he begins to fall down the stairs. All of them watch as the supposed spy tumbles ill gracefully down the set of step, landing on the basement floor with a loud audible thud. As the indigo agent moans on the ground, Renee walks past, sidestepping him in her worry. Kingsley draws his attention from his agent and more towards his beloved, happily exclaiming: “Renee!”. The platinum blonde turns her gaze away from her rescuer and towards her beloved exclaiming back: “Kingsley!”. The two rush towards one another, holding each other in their warm embrace. The site makes Kingsley parents hearts melt, their son with someone he truly holds dear. The mother gives a soft coo, letting her tears of joy flow through.

Cayenne check up on their blue spy, seeing him try to pry himself off the floor. “You doing okay.” she asks. “Yeah...Did I do a good?” he mumbles in his daze. She thinks about what to say for just a moment before concluding: “Ehhh...Sure why not.”. “HoOrAaaAAaAay...”.

Breaking form their embrace, Kingsley asks Renee: “Are you okay? How bad did he hurt you? Are there any bruises?”. “Kingsley, Kingsley, listen. I’m fine. I’m just happy to see you.”. In the background, the blue bird picks himself up on the floor and dusts off his suit. Kingsley mother approaches the young couple, greeting the blonde with: “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that. I’d never imagine that he’d get so much worse.”. Tore than adjusts his cuff links, waving his eye brows up and down towards Cayenne as he did so. Cayenne scowls at the boy, making the boy back away, smiling in a nervous sweat. “And to think. He’d do that kinda shit to his own child.” the dad remarks. “Honestly, I’m glad he didn’t find out about Kingsley and I. He would have exploded if he found out I was going out with someone from his rival family.”.

“Hang on. Something still bugging me about all this. Why is whole dumb family rivalry such a big deal anyway?” Tore interjects. “Come to think of it. Mom never did tell me what happened between all of you guys.” Renee mentions. “Yeah, whenever I asked the both of you, you guys always allude to something happening long ago. Just hinting that you crossed one another at some point. What gives?” Kingsley asks his parents. His mother gives a weary sigh and admits to her sons: “I guess its finally time you deserve to know what happened all those years.”.

Back when I was a little girl, both mine and Remy’s dad had set us up on countless dates to try and get us together. They figured that if our families joined, we’d be the most powerful multinational conglomerate in the world. Remy figured the whole ordeal was nothing short of fate. I felt otherwise. The plan fell through as I drifted away from him, his egotistical madness just too much for me to bear. Least to say, he didn’t take my rejection well. He swore that he would do anything to make me his. Over the years that threat drifted away in the back of my mind, especially when I met your dad. He managed to help me out of the hole of depression that I’d found myself stuck in ever since your grandmothers death and we’ve been happy ever since. A little of a rocky road at times, but we’ve managed to always bounce back. Remy than returned, seeing me not only with someone other than him, but happy with your dad, drove him insane. He couldn’t take it. In his desperation, he kidnapped me, saying that if he couldn’t have me, then on one else could. You’re dad quickly came to my rescue, engaging him for me in what seemed to be a long and brutal fight. Remy nearly won, on the cusp of killing your dad. That’s when I stepped in and saved him. Both of us worked together to put a stop to him escaping with our very lives. From that day, the Spicers and Buxaplentys have been bitter rivals to this day.

The children around the couple were enraptured by their dangerous history. Renee can’t believing that her own father attempted such a heinous act before her time. A lot of things were going through the blondes head, the first thing she says is such. “Oh my...god...I...I can’t believe my dad did all of that to you two. I’m...so sorry. I-”. “Renee, sweetie, don’t say another word. Everything that happened back than was your dads fault. You have nothing to be sorry about.” the mom tells her. “I’m just worried about what he might do to my mom with me gone.”.

All of them suddenly hear Tore gasp aloud, screaming: “I forgot about Mally and Mom! They could still be at the party! I-I-I gotta get back over there fast!”. Not a single step does he take before his phone begins to ring. Pulling it out, he finds his sister calling for him. A relieved sigh escapes his mouth before he answers, gushing with: “Oh my god, Mally. I’m so glad you guys are safe. I thought that you guys might have been trapped over at the-”. “What the hell did you do!” she screams, being loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, and the phone not even on speaker. “Um...Excuse me?”.

Over in an alleyway in the city, their mom was peeking out into the streets while Mally was talking to her brother. “We saw you bust through a wall and fly off with you’re girlfriend. Her dad came out screaming and sent security after us. If it weren't for Renee’s mom. Who knows what might have happened. And it turns out, Mr. Buxaplenty isn’t the only one after us. “What you mean by that?”. “Have you checked the news?”.

Upstairs, everyone turned on the living room television, where upon a news man chimed in, announcing: “You’ve heard it here folks. The eccentric trillionaire Remy Buxaplenty has just laid down a handsome reward for the return of his daughter.”. “Oh no.” Kingsley utters. “Earlier this even, the wealthy couple had thrown their annual Buxaplenty Gala, inviting investors and stars alike. Among them were a family of three, the eldest son claiming to be the daughters boyfriend.”. Upon that statement, a picture of Tore, Mally, and their mother had been displayed beside the newscaster head. “Aw man, I blinked.” Tore mentions. “The blue boy had assaulted Mr. Buxaplenty while discussing matters with his daughter in private, snatching the poor girl away from her loving father.”. Renee lets out a disbelieving sigh, remarking with: “Yeah, right. Loving.”. “Is this a case of a lovers affair, dare I say an extreme showmanship of elopement? Well we here can’t say. Regardless, everyone will be on the lookout for the blue boy and his family in hopes of claiming the 10 billion dollar reward.” “How much!?” Cayenne reclaims. “And they better hurry. Buxaplenty says this offer only lasts until midnight.”.

Kingsley turns off the TV and takes a deep breath. “Okay. Thi-this is fine. No need to panic. Just need to take this one step at a time.”. All of them watch as he begins to nervously laugh, which soon turns to panicked hyperventilation as he goes into the corner of the room. “Kingsley, Kingsley.” Renee goes as she approaches. She tries to calm her actual boyfriend down, hugging him while claiming: “It’s alright. Things aren’t as bad as they seem yet. We can think of away out of this. You just need to calm down.”. Kingsley’s breathing pace begins to slow down, coming to a more reasonable speed. “Right?” he utters. He turns back towards his friends and family and tells them in a far more calm manner: “So. We need to make plans to get Renee and Tore’s family out of town fast.”. With a phone to her ear, the mom worries with: “Nnn...Chloe’s not answering her phone. I hope she didn’t lose it.”. “It’s okay. As long as no one saw Renee come here, we should be safe...”. The boy genius turns towards his indigo agent, asking: “No one saw you fly here, right?”. “A couple. Why?” “Guys.” the dad rings out. Looking over, they find her staring out through the window, asking all of them: “Think you might wanna see this.”.

Everyone looks out the window with her, viewing around and wondering what the father wanted them to see. “See what?” Cayenne asks. “Out there.” he responds, pointing towards the front of the manor. Out from the distance, they could spot a cluster of faint glows amongst a crowd of shadows. “What is that?” Kingsley mom wonder. “Kinda looks like an angry mob.” Tore answers.

A closer look revealed his assumption to be correct. A large mob of people was slowly crawling towards the manor, armed to the teeth with sharp weaponry, torches, guns, some even sporting armed rocket launchers. As most of Kingsley and his friends look towards the mob with uncertainty, wonder, even fear, all Cayenne has to say to the entire matter was: “...Well, shit...”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just something to close out a little story plot that I set up. Just to add a note here, the official map of Townsville was release after this Chapter was long finished. Though I suppose it largely doesn't matter.

[lillaxtrigger]

Changes that might happen.

Heyo. Hope everyone that stuck around has been enjoying my stories so far.

With the first season of Young hope having been finished, I think I might be on hiatus for a month to give myself time to catch up on it and Faded land.

See you in February

[lillaxtrigger]

Young hope: Chapter 9

On the outskirts of town stood a big skate park. Mally was riding through the rails, sparks trailing behind her as she grinds. She jumps from the rail onto a wall which she road and bounced off to the bowl, which she used as a ramp to flip over to the half pipe. After riding up the half pipe, she jumps high in the sky and does twirls in the air and lands on the edge. She stretches her limbs out as she stands on the edge of the half pipe. “Ah, feels good to be at an actual skate park for once.”. Looking out, she has a view of the whole park. Rails, bowls, ramps, walls, even a loopdeeloop, all right in Townsville skate park. “Streets are nice. But you kinda have to take in stuff like cars, crack, pedestrians, and that stuff sucks. But out here, I don’t have to worry about any of that. I can skate on to my hearts content. Traffic accidents be dammed!”. Mally looks around the skate park and says: “Now how am I gonna get enough speed to get through that loopdeeloop?”. She starts to trace a path through the park in her head, determining where she might go. “I could go from the half pipe, jump in the rail, up that ramp, bounce of the wall and-”. Mally then looks over and sees somebody hanging on the opposite side of the half pipe. It was a young woman, whose bright green roller blades matches with her striped bright green undershirt that was under her short sleeved dark green jacket. The clown cap with dark green highlights under her magenta hair went with the jacket nicely. The woman dropped down onto the half pipe and jumped right in front of Mally. She then skated out of the pipe jumped onto a rail, which she then jumped out to the half pipe. The woman then jumped down into the bowl and jumped out of it onto the end of a ramp. She sped through the loopdeeloop and off the ramp on the end to back flip and land on the ground. “Whoa.” Mally gushed in awe. She watched as the woman skated over to a green duffle bag and grabbed it as she skated out of the park. Curious, she skated after the magenta woman, leaving the park and finding her walking down the street. She speeds after her as the woman walks through an intersection. She tries to follow her, but is cut off due to traffic. Determined not to quit, she backs up a fair bit before skating to get a running start. Grabbing onto a way wards streetlamp, she spins around and ascends, jumping from the lamp over the intersection. Landing on the other side, she blows on her hands to cool them, remarking: “Man, I wish I could to that without burning my hands.”. She sees the woman climbing up a weird rock wall to a forest without hesitating, follows in after. With the rough terrain, she takes off her skates and puts them and her helmet away. Walking through the forest, she listens to the chirping of the birds and the whistles of the wind, a colorful bird flutters through the trees. She then sees the woman nearby and hides. As Mally gets closer, she sees the woman scanning the area, as if she was hunting. The careless girl steps on a twig and breaks it. Before the woman could look over, Mally swiftly gets behind a nearby tree. “That was close. She almost spotted me. But what’s she doing out here?” she thinks. Just then, a laser pierces through the tree, barely hitting her head. “Alright, come on out. I know you’re back there.” the woman says as she holds a laser pistol. Mally slowly comes out from behind the tree with her arms halfway up. The woman puts down her gun as soon as she sees Mally. “A kid?”. Seeing the woman putting down the weapon, Mally immediately went from frightened, to angry. “What the hell’s the big idea for!? You almost blew my head off!”. “Why are you following me like some kind of creepy stalker?” the woman boldly retorts. Mally calms down and says nervously: “Um-Uh..I-I saw you pull off that cool loopdeeloop at the skate park and was wanting to ask h-how you did that.”. The woman groans and pinches her big pink nose, then starts shoving Mally back. “Hey, what are you doing!?” Mally shouts. A long eared, beige fox prowled around the forest ground, scurrying for food. When it sees Mally and the lady coming, it bolts away. “You can’t be in here, kid. I’m following a lead and I can’t lose it to babysit some brat in the middle of the woods.”. “A lead? Are you some kind of detective?”. “Something like that.” the woman says “What are you following?”. “Some guy called Nonya bidness.”. “Nonya bid- Hey! Don’t give me fake names like that!”. “Never mind, kid. Just shove off back home.”. Reaching the end of the forest, both of the were shocked to see the sight in front of them. “What?” Mally says. In front of of the were miles of ocean, Townsville fading into the horizon. “Where’s the town going?” Mally asks. The woman checks her phone and sees she has no signal. She sighs, saying: “Dammit.”. She turns Mally towards her and says: “Alright, listen up kid. As long as your with me, you’re gonna have to do exactly what I say, when I say it. Nothing else, got it?”. “My names, not kid. It’s Mally.” “Fine. Mally. Whatever. Just do what I say so you don’t die.”. “Jeez. Fine.”. Both of them start heading back into the wood, as whispers under her breath: “Ya grump.”. As they walk through the jungle grove, Mally asks: “So what’d you really come in here for?”. The woman groans and says: “I was looking for some weird elf guy that had been stealing from pharmacies.”. “An elf?”. “Yep. Thinking it might be the one whose piloting this moving island. If I can find it. I can get it to steer this thing back to land and get you back home.”. “What? No way. You already got me hooked. I can’t back out now.”. “Ki- (groans) This ain’t some amusement park. I don’t know if this elf is deadly or not and I don’t want a kids deaths on my conscious.”. “I ain’t some defenseless wimp. I can take care of myself. Just give me something, I can prove it.”. The woman groans and says: “Fine.”. She then digs into her bag and pulls out a two hockey sticks, one smaller then the other. She throws Mally the smaller stick. Catching it, she says: “A hockey stick?”. “Expecting something better?”. “Why not that laser pistol?”. Thr woman break out laughing, saying: “You really think I’d trust some kid with a laser pistol. I ain’t that dumb.”. As she stops chortling, she finishes with: “Beside, its outta juice.”. As the woman zips up her bag, Mally looks at the worn hockey stick and shrugs. “Now stay close.”. Continuing to hike, they pass by scurrying lemurs. The woman looks back to Mally and sees her swinging and twirling her newfound weapon. She looks ahead and spots something in the distance. The woman pulls Mally behind and tree. “Hey, what’s-”. The woman quickly puts her hand over Mally’s mouth and goes: “Shhh.”. Mally pulls the woman’s hand off her mouth and whispers: “What are we whispering about?”. Both of them look behind the tree and see a pale lumbering monster with enlarged claws and legs with a tiny head. “What is that?” Mally asks. “Not to sure. Looks like a monster of some kind. Hang back.”. The woman slowly come from behind the tree and sneaks towards the pale beast. She sneaks around to its back, being careful not to make a sound. She brandishes here hockey stick and readies to swing. She stops when both her and the monster hear Mally running at the monster from the side. The monster lifts its large hand and swings overhead down at it’s oncoming attacker. “Dammit.” the woman cursed. Mally side steps out of the beasts attack and swings at its side. The monster swipes at her, Mally ducking to avoid its sharp claws. The woman jumps from behind and hold the beasts neck with her hockey stick. The monster flails around trying to get her off, swinging its large arms around. Mally swiftly evades the arms and strikes the monsters leg to try and topple it, but they were too thick to trip. The pale beast shakes the woman off and slaps Mally away with great force. As Mally was flying back, her hockey stick hooked onto a branch and send her upwards. She landed on the branch perfectly on her feet to her own astonishment. She looked at the wooden weapon in her hand, wondering how it didn’t break. Mally then looks back and sees the pale beast blocking the green capped woman attacks. The monster then tried to crush her in between its palms, but the woman ducked and struck it in the side of its stomach. Grasping its bruised stomach, the white demon backs away as it looks at its attacker, giving a smug smile and waggling its finger at it. She then hooks onto the beasts legs and trips it up. The young woman lunges, aiming for the monsters head. The demon raises its thick arms above its head to block its opponent. Mally watches the fight from above, seeing the beast get up and strike at the young woman. The green capped girl dodges to the white demons side and try to strike the side of its head. The beasts blocks again and swipes at her. The woman jumps up and tries her hand at an over head strike. The beast raises its hands above its head and blocks once more. With the woman landing in front of it, the monster tries to smash her in using its big legs, but she evades its crushing blow, leaving behind a print on the ground. Mally then realized what she was trying to do. “Oh, I get it. She aiming for its head. With it being so small, I bet it can’t take a big hit.”. She saw how the monster was not taking its eyes off its opponent. She was trying to think of a way to strike at the monster, when suddenly some sunlight got in her eye. Looking up, she saw branches decorating trees, their leaves blocking out the sunlight leaking through the treetops. Snapping her finger, she says: “There!” before jumping towards the nearest branch, using her hockey stick to hook on them. After that, she jumped towards the next one. She keep repeating this until she nears the treetops. Looking down, her veiw of the fight was much smaller, she couldn’t even tell what was happening, just that the woman was darting around the white demon. Using her thumb to aim, bounces on the branch before jumping down jumps down. While dodging, the woman sees Mally dropping down, brandishing her hockey stick, seeing that she was going to miss. She acted quick and pushed the beast towards Mally's range. Mally bashes the white demon in the head. “Yeah!” she shouts as she lands. The monster tumbles for a bit before falling to the ground. With the battle over, the both of them approach and look down on the fallen beast “Is it dead?” Mally asks. “After poking their newly defeated foe with her hockey stick, the woman concluded with: “Yep, its deader then death.”. “My first kill…”. Mally starts to giddy with a smile, then jumps saying: “Awesome! And its a huge monster of all thing. Wait til my brothers hear about this.”. “You wouldn’t have struck the finishing blow if it weren't for me. Better yet, we wouldn’t have to go through all that if you didn’t just run at it like a suicidal maniac.”. Upset how quickly the woman brought down her moment, she folds her arms while giving a huffed face. Just then, they heard the sound of thunderous footsteps approach. Turning around, they saw a whole pack of those huge white demons closing in. Backing up, the woman says to Mally: “So, how fast do you think you can run...Kid?”. Hearing no response, she turns around and sees Mally darting away in the opposite direction. The woman runs away, catching up to the girl. “So now what?” Mally asks. “Not sure. Gimme a second.”. Mally looks around, only seeing passing trees. “Maybe we should go up. I don’t think their big feet would be good for climbing.” she suggests. The woman uses her hockey to hook onto one of the branches, grabbing a hold of Mally as she pulls herself up. They ascend up halfway to the treetops, where they saw the pack of demons swarm around the bottom of the trees. The monsters scrap away at the tree in an effort to climb up, but slide down due to their heavy ankles. “Hey, it worked. Good thinking.” the woman says. Mally shows a big smile to the woman, which was again broken when the tree they were standing on began to shake. Looking back down, they see the beasts striking at the trees. “There trying to knock us down. What do we-”. Mally looks over and sees the woman putting on a pair of skate. “What are you doing?”. “Hey, Kid. How good can you skate?”. “I’ll have you know I can skate like crazy. Why?”. The girl sees the woman take off and jump to the next branch, grinding on the wood as she traversed. “Oh.”. After putting on her skates she jumps off from the tree just as it falls down, following the woman as she grinds. Looking back, she sees the mob of white demons chasing after, getting further and further away from them. She then sees the woman take her hockey stick and hook onto one of the above branches to flip off. Using the momentum from her speed, she flips up towards the treetops. Mally pulled her stick out and tried the same thing. She hooks the branch and starts to flip. Using the momentum, she sends herself up towards the treetops and lands on one of the branches. “Cool.”. Mally pushes herself off and grinds onto another branch. With her newfound skill, she picks up more speed by jumping off a tree and hooking onto another branch. With the added momentum, she ascends further, almost towards the treetops. Upon landing, she looks forward, barely able to see the green capped lass. Thinking with one big jump, she might be able to catch up. Mally darts out towards her, pushing herself off from tree to tree when she lands on a branch to gain more speed. She hooks onto the branch and rockets into the sky. Flying past the trees, she sees over the island and towards the vast blue sea. Looking to her right, she sees waves along the water moving away from the island. Something below the island was making those waves, but couldn’t make out what it was. Before she could have time to register what it might be, Mally starts to plummet back down. She falls past the trees and starts to rocket towards the ground. Halfway down, something catches her. She looks over and sees the green capped woman hooked her in with her hockey stick. As she dragged her back onto the tree, the woman warned Mally: “Easy kid.” Putting her back on the branch, the woman adds: “You gotta control yourself. You’re lucky we lost those white things.”. “Listen, I saw something. When I was up there. I saw the island moving.” Mally says. “Well, no duh. Why do you think we’re trapped here.”. “No. I think something is moving the island. Like it was paddling it away.”. “Really? What was it?”. “I...I don’t know. All I saw was the water splashing.”. “You know where you saw it?”. “Yeah, it was right...uh..” the girl as she turned around. Looking around she tried to remember which direction she saw the splashing water. “Um...Was it...No...Ah! I can’t tell where! Everything around here looks green!”. As Mally was looking around, the woman looked over and saw a figure staring at them in the distance. Squinting out, all she could make out was its long pointy ears. Her target perhaps? Not hesitating, the green capped girl immediately heads towards the figure. Mally turns back, stating: “Wait a second! I didn’t say where yet.”, then chases after the woman. Getting a closer look, the woman realized that intuition was correct and that the figure was an elf. One wearing a Chinese robe. Just before she lands on the branch the elf was on, he jumps away, casting out vines from his hands to swing to the next branch. Mally catches up just when the woman continues the chase, leaving her behind. “Wait a minute!”. She sees beside her a photograph. Picking it up, she thinks that it dropped out of the woman pockets and grinds after her. “Hey, wait up!’. The green capped lass chases the elf out of a jungle forest and more to a temperate woods. She jumps towards one of the trees and using her hockey stick spirals down and jumps to the next tree. Mally brandishes her stick and tries the same thing, only to fly off. She saves herself by hooking onto a wayward branch and sees the elf swing to the ground, darting away from his pursuer. Mally slides off the tree and sees the woman in her pursuit. She quickly gets up and follows. The woman chases the stranger through tall, dense shrubs, where she found herself atop a cliff. Although she could see the ocean from miles around, she saw no sign of her target. Mally catches up to her, says: “Hold on! Hold on!” After looking out towards the ocean, she looks at the woman and asks: “Was that the elf you were chasing after?”. “Damn it! Lost him!” the woman shouts as she slaps her hat against her knee. “Hey, its okay. I mean as long as he doesn’t know how to swim, he has nowhere to go, right?”. “Hmm, guess so.” the woman says as she puts her hat back on. “Oh, hang on.” Mally exclaimed. She pulls out the photo out of her pocket and gives it to the woman. “Here.”. The woman saw the photo of a younger girl that looked like her alongside a boy dark skin and green tinted glasses. “What the-!”. She quickly snatches the photo out of Mally’s hands. “Did you pick this out of my pocket!?”. “What!? No! You dropped it when you went after that elf. Why would I try and steal something out of your pockets?” Mally says as the woman puts away the photo. Distracted, they didn’t see someone approaching them from behind. Just when the woman realizes there was someone behind her, she was pushed off the cliff. Mally watches as the green capped woman plummeted towards the ocean. “Ash-...Uh, Barb-...Eh, whoever you are!”. That same something pushes Mally of next, leading down to the sea. Both girls splash down toward the water. While the woman calmly surfaces, Mally struggles to stay afloat. “What’s wrong with you!?” the woman shouts. “I don’t know how to swim either.” Mally says as she flails about. The woman swims over to the girl and grabs her to keep her from drown. “Ah...Ah, thank you.”. Mally looks over and is astonished by what she sees. “Oh my god.”. “What? What do you s-...s-...see..” the woman says as she look at what Mally sees. Her speech drops as she flabbergasts at the site before. “That’s why its moving.” Mally states. Before them was the head of a giant turtle, its dim, crust filled eyes staring out into the ocean. “It’s a giant turtle.”. “Hey! over here! Look!” Mally shouts. “Ah! What are you doing?” the woman asks. “I’m trying to get its attention. Hey! Down here! You got guests!”. The turtle doesn’t respond, as if it doesn’t know that they’re there. “I don’t think it can here you.”. “It doesn’t look so good.” Mally worries. “What makes you say that?”. “Look at its eyes, they’re crusty and colorless. Its skin is pale and gray.”. The turtle blows out a long and exhausted sigh. “What you thinks wrong with it?”. “Well, I’d be pretty sick if I had those white things on my back too.” the woman says as she swims back to the edge of the turtle. Getting back on the shell, Mally looks over to the turtles head. “How do you think we can help it?”. The woman shrugs and walks off, saying: “Don’t know.”. Mally walks after her, saying: “We gotta do something. It looks like its about to keelover.”. “Listen kid. That turtle ain’t my problem. The only thing I’m worried about is finding that elf and getting you home. Come on.”. With that, Mally stops in her tracks, sad that the green capped woman refuses to help. That sadness boils into anger, when Mally stomps her foot and declares: “No!”. “What?”. “I’m not going anywhere until we fix the turtle.”. “Kid, it might be too late to even do anything. We’d be wasting our time.”. “That’s better then doing nothing.” Both of them were looking at one another, until somebody broke the silence. “Do you really want to help her.”. They look over and see the elf, awaiting a response. While the lady brandishes her hockey stick, Mally simply replies with: “Yeah.”. “Then come with me.” The elf turns around and calmly walks deeper into the woods. The woman watches as Mally follows the stranger. “What are you doing?” the woman cautiously asks. “I’m helping.” Mally responds with a disgruntled tone. Having little other option, the woman groans and puts away her weapon, following the both of them. Sitting on a big stone slate in the middle of a calm and serene part of the woods, the lady stares at the elf with a discerning eye, watching as he pours three cups of tea. He hands both of them their cups. While Mally takes her cup, the green capped lass refuses to, prompting the elf to sit it beside her. After the elf sips his tea, he sighs and looks up towards the tree’s. “Do you hear it… the sounds of the forest?” he says. Mally listens and hears the sound of the birds chirps, echo through the woods. She sees sloths hanging onto the branches of the trees. “Amazing, is it not. To think that this turtle was once the size of an egg, barely able to carry even a pebble around. And now its carrying an entire forest full of animals from all over the world on its back. Truly wonderful.”. “Hey, uh. Hate to spoil the mood, but mind telling us a couple stuff?” the woman hastes. “Like?”. The lady was about to speak, when Mally cut her off, asking: “What making this turtle so sick? It looks like its dying.”. “More importantly, who are you? What were those white things that attacked us? Why were you stealing from pharmacies”. “In order to answer all your questions. I must first tell you of an ancient Chinese tale. One that dates back over 1,000 years.” “Oooh.” Mally goes. “Oh god dammit...” the woman says in impatience. A small turtle egg, buried in the beach. Hatching from its shell, it crawled out of the sands, expecting to greet its fellow tortoises. But when she surfaced, no one was around. It looked everywhere along the beach in hopes of finding its family, but to no avail. Having nowhere else to go, she awaited, hoping for them to return. From a nearby kingdom, a young boy watched as the turtle sat patiently on the beach. Days pass, the turtle was dry, cold and starving. The boy worried for the baby tortoise. Snatching up the turtle from the beach, the boy quickly ran back to his home in an effort to save the dying tortoise. He took her to the koi pond in his garden, where everyday he fed the tortoise until her color came back. When the turtle was healthy again, the boy decided to keep her as a pet, hoping it would upset the loneliness in his heart. From the day forward, the boy had addressed her by one lone name. Zool. With no one else to play with, not even his busy parents, he went to the koi pond to play with Zool everyday. As the years went by, their love for one another grew, as did Zool. Eventually, when she grew too big to hide, the boy parents found out and told him that he could no longer house her in the pond. With nowhere else to go, the boy returned Zool to the same beach where he found her. He knew that he could no longer keep her. With a magic stone that the boy received for his birthday, he recites an enhancement. “Ravos, elfin guardian. Come forth and fulfill my wishes.”. He asked the guardian to protect and care for his friend during her voyage. Zool wanted to go back to the boys home with him, but the boy wanted her to part, promising that one day, he would return to her side. Refusing to leave, the guardian was forced to carry the tortoise into the ocean, crying out as she watched her life long friend depart.”. After hearing the story, the woman noticed Mally crying into her teacup. “That...That’s so sad.” the girl sobbed, the tears running through her eyes. “Still doesn’t explain why you robbed a bunch of pharmacies, or those white monsters.” the lady said. “Ah, but my robberies do have to do with the white monsters.”. A colorful bird roost on the elf’s finger. “You see, Zool has traveled all over the globe. Exotic animals from all over the world have gathered on her back to nest.” The bird flies away, its wings casting a shadow on the three. “Unfortunately, worldwide travel brings with it exotic plagues. Most of them are harmless to her, unable to crack through Zool’s thick shell. Unfortunately, around a year ago, she’s picked up a rare virus that takes the form of the monsters you faced. Parasites that are feeding off of Zool’s grief. The broken promise made by the boy has driven her into a deep sadness.”. “Yeah, if the turtle so depressed, why don’t you try talking to her. Give her a pep talk or something.” the woman remarked. “I’ve tried. But her hearing has been worsening ever since these white monsters appeared. I fear they might be trying to block out any outside sources, to let the depression in her fester and grow. I can barely see the color in her eyes. All that she can do now is swim and house any other animals that are still alive. I’ve tried my best to fight off these parasites, but they multiply by the day. If only I’d found them sooner, they wouldn’t be so overwhelming.”. “That’s why you were robbing from those pharmacies. You wanted to try and make her feel better, or at least get rid of those monsters.” Mally said. “Yes. I’ve heard that these “pharmacies” housed medicine that might cure Zool of this plague.”. “What kind of medication have you been bringing back?” the woman says. Ravos stands up and stomps on the stone plate. A stone cabinet rose out from the middle, prompting both Mally and the lady to back away. Within its shelves stood dozens of bottles full of various medication. As the green capped lass grabs and looks at one of the bottles, Mally asks the guardian: “Have you given her all these drugs?”. “Of course not. Any medication that I feed her would be to small too have any effect. Which is why I’ve been testing them.”. The elf stamps on the giant slate again, making another platform rise. On it was one of the white demons that both Mally and the woman faced before, struggle to break free of its vine binds. Ravos takes the bottle that the woman was holding and pulls out a single tablet. Taking the vines off of the beasts mouth, he forced the monster maw open, the elf shoves the tablet down its throat. After binding the demons mouth shut, Ravos backs up, seeing the beast swallow the pill and awaiting for something to happen to the parasite. A couple seconds, the monster went back to struggling. The guardian sighs in frustration as he bends to his knees. “No matter what I try, every batch of medicine that I’ve brought back has proved ineffective. I’m running out of options.”. The woman walks over to the vine bound beast and closely looks as it growls at her, grunting as it frantically tries to break its binds. “These things are pretty mindless. Do they have some kind of queen or something?”. “Yes actually. Near the middle of the shell. Why? Do you have a plan?”. “Kinda off. This might be a hunch, but paranormal parasites like this usually have a hive mind thing going on. Take her out, then the rest should follow suit, right?”. “But the queen is surrounded by countless servants. Getting near her would be a challenge in of itself. How do you even plan on defeating her?”. The lady points to the stone cabinet full of medicine and replies with: “You got an ass load of meds on that shelf to overdose a T-rex. Just bundle them all into one and shove it down her throat.”. “Maybe. But we have nothing to hold them all together. I doubt that it will let us take. The time to drop them in.”. “What about honey?” Mally asks. “How is honey gonna help?” the green capped lass questions. “If we get some, we can stick all the drugs inside, making them all go down in one gulp.”. “Hmm...”. The elf slammed his foot once more on the stone, making another cabinet rise from the ground. “How many of those do you have?” the woman asked. The Ravos walks over to the cabinet and pulls out a glass from the shelf. “I know the perfect place we can get honey.”. He starts to walk off, asking the both of them to: “Follow me.”. As the woman watches the elf depart, she looks over to Mally, who was smiling at her. “What?”. “I knew you cared.” Mally replied. “Shut up. I just want to get back to land is all.” she pointed out as she tailed the elf. With a frown, Mally began to follow the both of them. Leaving behind the tied up parasite behind, they didn’t see the monster beginning to break its binds. Ravos lead the both of them to a grove of tall pine trees, bears lumber around, guarding the pine. “We must be careful. The bears horde the rich honey produced in those tree’s. Driving any other animals away from their golden nectar.”. A wolf begins to enter the grove, prowling to one of the pine. One of the bears spots the wolf, growling at the dog to try and drive it away. The wolf growls back to try and heed back the bear, until other ursas join in. The wolf then wimpers as it runs out. “Alright. Lets take them down.” the woman says as she grasps her hockey stick, ready for action. “No. We must not harm them. I will distract the ursa while you climb up to gather honey.”. The elf rushes out towards the shrubs towards the pack of bear. “Wait. What do we do about the bee’s?”. The lady shrugs and says: “Guess we do whatever.”. Ravos quickly sprints past the numerous bears, making them chase after him. While they were distracted, both girls climb up the nearest tree they can and start to climb up. Mally looks towards the elf leading the grizzlies away and asks the woman: “Do you think he’ll be okay?”. “He’ll be fine. Come on.”. Both of them make it up to a hole in the tree. Looking inside, they see a hollow full of bees buzzing around through the hive full golden honey. “That’s a lot of bee’s” Mally remark. “Yep.”. The woman pulls out a grenade out of her bag and takes the pin out with her teeth. “Fire in the hole.”. “Whoa! Whoa Whoa! Whoa! We can’t blow them up. You heard what Ravos said .” Mally objects. “Kid, relax. Its a sleep grenade. It’ll just make them pass out.”. The woman chucks the grenade in the hole and warns: “Now hold you’re breathe.”. Both of them go behind the tree before the grenade goes off. Smoke erupts from the hole, leaking out to the sky. “There we go.”. The lady pulls out the glass jar and approaches the hollow. “Now we just take a jar full of honey and-”. Before she could finish, a swarm of bees comes out and attacks, making the green capped lass fall off. Mally catches the jar as the swarm chase the woman down. She looks down and watches the lady plummet towards the ground. Using her hockey stick, the lady hooks onto a branch and slides down to the ground. With the bees still chasing, she runs away from the swarm. After breathing a sigh of relief, Mally reaches into the hollow and pulls out a jar full of honey. “Got it.”. She looks down towards the woman being chased by a swarm of bees. “I got the honey.”. “Great! Throw it to me!” the lady shouts. “What!?”. “Throw it down to me! I’ll catch it!”. Mally looks at the jar of honey and shouts: “I don’t think that’s a good idea!”. “Just do it!”. The girl thinks for a moment before she puts the jar away. “I’m just gonna climb down!” Mally shouts, Just then, she hears the sound of a monstrous scream echo through the honey grove. Down on the ground, one of the white parasites runs into the grove as it roars. The bears in response charge towards the monster. “No! Don’t!” Ravos begs the bears. As they come, the parasite begins to swipe at the territorial ursa’s, knocking them aside with its giant arms. The swarm of bees swarming the woman start to head back to its hive. With that done, she then sees Ravos rush towards the scene at hand. He jumps high into the air, casting its vines downward towards the beast. After it knocks way the last of the pack, the vines entangle the white monsters neck as Ravos lands behind it. “I will not let you harm anything else in this forest!” the guardian says with a determined glare. The parasite grabs the vines and swings the elf off around. Ravos slams into one of the trees, just in time for the woman to rush in with her hockey stick. She strikes its side, giving her an opportunity to aim for the head. The woman swings with all her might, only for the monster to grab her arms at the last second and fling her upward. The woman starts to hurdle down towards the beast as it readies to attack. Ravos pulls the green capped lass away just before the monster could strike. As the elf pulls her back, he tries to instructs the woman by saying: “Their enlarged limbs are to thick to try and attack, you must-” “I know, aim for the head.”. Both of them rush at the giant beast. As Mally watches the fight from up above, she rushes to climb down. “Gotta get down there.”. The monster knocks both of them aside. One of bears tries to strike it from behind, only for the white demon to slam it into the tree Mally was on. The tree shakes, with the girl clinging to it for dear life. It then begins to fall. Mally thinks fast and puts on her skate. She grinds down the tree as it falls, speeding towards the white demon. “Over here!” she shouts to it. The monster turns around just in time for Mally to kick it square in the stomach. The white parasite staggers, falling down on its knees as it clutches its belly. “How you like that?”. Just then, vines surround the monster entire body. Mally looks behind it and sees Ravos holding it back. With all his strength, the elf lifts the monster overhead and slams its upper half into the ground. Buried in the earth, the demon goes limp. With a sigh of relief, Ravos relaxes, knowing that the grove is safe. “That was amazing! The way you just slammed its head into the dirt was all like: Shhhoo...Boof!”. I mean that seemed like something out of an action flick.”. “I could not have done it if you haven’t given me the opening. If there’s anybody that deserves thanks, its you.” Ravos confesses. Both of them see the green capped lass approach rubbing her arm. “Dammit. I think one of those bees stung me.”. She turns to Mally and says: “What the hell, kid? Why didn’t you throw me the jar?”. “Sorry. I thought you might have been a little distracted trying to fend off a swarm of bees. I didn’t want it to break.” Mally defensively responds. “Girls.” Ravos tries to interject. “That’s not the point. You haven’t been listening all day. If you want me to help, you need you to trust me.”. “Girls.”. “And why should I? You don’t seem that eager to trust me.”. “That’s because you don’t listen!” the woman scream. “Girls!” Ravos shouts. “What!?” both of them say. They look around and see the pack waking up, approaching them with low key growls “Something tells me they’re not so thankful.” Mally states. All of them run out of the grove, a jar full of golden nectar in their possession. After stuffing all the medicine that Ravos had in the honey, all of them head to the middle of the shell. With a long trek through the trees, all of them noticed the trees near them were look rotted. They find themselves before the nest, where the woman and Mally first caught their first glimpse of the parasite queen. “That’s the queen!?” Mally exclaims. Before them was a gigantic white blob, sporting elongated arms with holes decorating the queens base. The queen was surrounded by legions of her of drones, all of them waiting to strike anything comes near. At the top of the mass was a little head with a crown like growth at the top. “Holy shit! It looks like the size of a warehouse! Are you sure the meds will work on something this massive?” the woman asks the elf. “It has to. Even if it’s for a moment. While I distract the drones at the bottom, both of you must climb up the queen and jam the medicine down her throat. No matter what happens to me. You must continue with the plan.”. “Kay.” the woman simply goes as she puts the jar in her bag. The elf swung himself towards the legion below in an effort to by the girls some time. “Come on. Lets get going.” the woman says as both of them jump. Ravos lands in the middle of enemy territory and starts by grabbing one of the parasites and swinging it towards the others. After that all of them charge at him, trying to swipe at the guardian. The elf jumps up and snags one of the monsters by the head, he pulls himself towards the beast, stomping on its cranium and hops up toward the next one. Mally and the woman lands right on the queens stomach just below its countless holes. Both of them hold on by the giants fat. “So, whats the plan?” Mally asks. “We climb up and huck the honey down its throat.”. “Come on. We need more of a plan than that.”. “How bout this. Your pretty quick on your feet. So you distract this fat bitch, while I come from behind and jam the jar in.”. “Wait, why don’t you distract her, while I chuck the jar in? You’re better at fighting.”. “But I can climb up faster.”. Mally looks up at the towering figure before her with a worried stare. “Kid, remember how I said you needed to trust me, well now I’m trusting you.”. Both of us need to do our part to save this giant turtle, got it?”. “I-”. “Great! Don’t let me down.”. The woman quickly climbs around towards the back of the behemoth. “Oh boy. Distractions, distractions. Uh...”. The girl then got an idea. She whipped out her hockey stick and jammed it into one of the fat folds. A few moments later, the queen looked down and saw Mally pounding on its flab. “Got her attention, now what?”. She looked behind her and saw one of the arms heading her way. Mally quickly ascended to avoid the queens reach. With the other hand incoming, Mally leaps towards it. She dodges its grasp and starts to run up the giants arm. With her hockey stick, Mally strikes the queen in its elbow. Before the queen could smack her, Mally jumps back towards the stomach. She sees both hands coming for her and jumps down before they can crush the girl. Mally hooks herself on one of the holes and watches as the queen punches her own stomach. The giant parasite, writhes in pain, letting out a horrid shriek. “Ha! How’s that feel for ya!?” she shouts at the queen with a confident smile. Her smile disappears when she looks back and sees Ravos fighting off the horde of monsters. She sees one of them strike him in the arm. Although she is tempted, Mally stands firm, and starts to trek back up the queen, not seeing a pair of eyes glaring through the holes. The woman on the other side of the queen climbs on the giants back. She hears the sound of monstrous grunting out nearby. She stops and looks around, wondering where it might be coming from. It isn’t until she looks down that she sees small parasites coming out of the queens holes, climbing up towards her. “Uh oh.”. She whips out her hockey stick and hits the oncoming monster, knocking them off their queen. With every couple she knocks off, dozens more climb up. The green capped lass realizes that if she didn’t keep moving, she’d be swarmed. So she jumps off the queens rubbery back and hooks onto one of the trees to jump back towards the head. Landing higher, she quickly begins to climb up, but its not long before the parasites are on her tail once more. The woman sees the back of the head, getting out the jar and prepares to dunk it into the queens throat. But the little demons soon encroach upon her legs, making her stop in her tracks. “Come on!” she strains. She tries to claw her way up as they pile onto her, but she is soon swarmed, barely able to move an inch. Mally does the best she can to avoid the queens attacks. She hooks herself on one of its arms and jumps for the head, brandishing her hockey in hopes to maybe knock it out. Just when she was close, the queen traps her between its giant hands and starts to squeeze down. Mally pushes hands away to try and ease the pressure, but her strength was not enough, as the queen was closing her grasp. She looks back to Ravos and sees him still fighting the horde of white beasts. After kicking one of them back, the guardian jumps up and snags two of them, pulling them in and making the monsters slam into one another. But as soon as he lands, he is soon grabbed by one of them by his leg and pins him down to the ground, with the others enclosing. Mally looks back at the queen, staring at her with its souless eyes. “Come on...You told me to trust you. I did everything you told me to do. So where are you!?”. The woman jumps out of the pile of little parasites, twirling her hockey stick around to get them off. She jumps to the queens head and pulls it back by its gaping maw, giving her the opportunity to shove the jar down its throat. “Yes!”. The queen grabs Mally with a single hand so she could grasp the lady on top. With the queen staring right at them, its hot breath bellowing out to them, the woman asked: “Well, we’re fucked. Any regrets?”. “I never got to skate off the Egyptian pyramids.” Mally responds. Just then, they saw the queens head slowly bobbing back and forth. Its grip on the pair starting to weaken. Ravos looked around and saw all the monsters around him starting to fall over. The one pinning him down collapses on the elf. He knocking it away as he rose to sees the queen weakening, barely able to keep its balance. “Its working.”. The queen loses her grip on its two captives, dropping them down towards the ground. While both of them landed on their feet, the woman grabs her hockey stick as it dropped down. Mally tried the same thing, expecting hers to do the same, but the stick just clonks her on the noggin. “Ah!”. As she picks the stick back up, the woman tells her: “Hey, look at that.”. Staring out, they could see the queen teetering from side to side. As the queen fell, Mally shouts: “Timber!”. The queen falls the root holding her up unbind from the shell. The impact creates a thunderous boom that shakes the whole forest, the birds flutter out of the trees. “Ha ha! We did it. The queen’s down.” “But for how long.” the woman wonders. “What do you mean?” “Kid, something that big ain’t gonna stay down for long.”. “She’s right.” Ravos confirms. Both girls turn around and see the guardian limp to them. “The queen is only knocked out. I imagine it won’t be long before it gets back up.”. “Then why did we do all this!?” Mally questions. “With the queen incapacitated, Zool’s hearing might have came back. We only have precious minutes to break through to her. Quickly!”. The elf starts to run, but soon collapses on the ground. “Ah!”. “What’s wrong!?” Mally asks. “My leg. It’s broken. My arm is too torn to cast vines either. I can’t move.”. “No problem.” the woman . Both of them turn to her to see the green capped lass with her roller blades on. “Count on me!” she says before skating away. “Wait up.” Mally says as she gets out her skates. The woman races through the jungle, passing by countless trees as she darts. No sooner, Mally joins her side. “So, whats the plan?”. “We skate as fast as we can to the head.”. “That’s it? I don’t think were gonna make it in time.”. “Got any better ideas?”. Mally looks up towards the distant treetops, the twilight sky peaking out through the leaves. “Yeah. We go up!” she says as she jumps towards the branches. She uses her hockey stick to hook one of the branches to rise, with the lady following sooth. Both of them jump from branch to branch, ascending up towards the sky. Mally misses one of them and starts to drop, but the woman quickly catches her. “Gotcha. Hang on!”. Both of them start to slow down, the overall weight dragging them. “I don’t know if were gonna make it.” the woman . Mally thinks for a moment before blurting out: “Throw me!”. “What!”. “Throw me up!”. “I don’t think that-”. “Just do it!”. The woman drops over to a nearby branch and begins to spin. She spins faster and faster and faster, until both of them are nothing but blurs. The woman then lets go of Mally, launching her quickly into the air. Mally soars past the treetops and up towards the clouds. She takes in all the breath she can and calls out: “ZOOOOOOOOOLLL!!!”. Her call echoes past the forest, past the vast ocean, past the very heavens. “I heard about you and that boy! The one who took care of you! He might be gone, but you still remember him don’t you!? I know your sad he’s gone, but as long as you don’t forget him, his memory will never die!”. How do you think he’d feel seeing you like this!?” All is quite. Zool’s head begins to rise, the color in her eyes start to return. The tortoises mouth begins to open. Out from her maw a loud roar that echoed from miles on end. A joyful smile grew as Mally plummeted to the ground. Descending through the treetops, the woman caught the girl with her hockey stick. “Good job, kid.”. Mally looked at the woman with a huge grin. As they climbed down, they heard Zool roar a second time. “What’s going on?” Mally asks. The woman looks around and see the various exotic animals stamped through, some heading up toward the trees. “I think Zool’s trying to tell us something.”. Just then, they felt the ground beneath them shake. Zool starts to topple to the side. They see the ocean coming up in front of them and try to run. But running proves fruitless as the island sized turtle flips over. Hanging on to a tree with his vine, Ravos watches as all the white parasite are cast off to the ocean with their queen. The woman start to be swept away by the current, try to grab on whatever she could to save herself. She then grabs onto a familiar looking stick. When she looks, it was her old hockey stick, Mally holding it out as she clasps both it and the tree she was on. The woman starts to climb towards her. She sees the stick is about break, and tries to hurry, but is too late as it breaks to pieces. About to fly away, Mally grabs on to the womans arm before she’s taken away. The woman sees the girl with her eyes shut tight, coughing as she holds on to the tree for dear life. Zool flips back up. Waves of water falling out to her side. The forest is drenched, the woman coughs as she regains her breath. “Kid. You actually saved my-”. The woman's smile quickly drains as she sees Mally flat on the ground. She runs towards the girl, seeing her completely motionless. “Shit!”. The green capped lass acts fast and starts to pump her chest. She then puts her mouth on the girls and starts to blow as hard as she can. She goes back and forth between pumping and giving. “Come on kid! Don’t die on me!”. One final breath, Mally awakens. She vomits out a lot of water before she catches her breathe. The woman takes huge sigh of relief. After Mally catches her breathe, she gives a wide smile before saying: “We...did it...”. Their heavy breathing is interrupted when a familiar voice says: “Indeed you have.”. Both of them look over and see Ravos limp to them. “Thanks to your actions. Zool shall live another day. Your speech to her was touching, exactly what she needed to hear.”. The elf guardian bows to the two and thanks them. “On behalf of Zool, all the creatures she harbors, and myself, we are in your debt.”. Both Mally and the woman look at one another, with Mally saying: “Hey, no problem.”. “Yeah, just taking us back home will work.” the woman finishes. Ravo’s then feels a sharp pain in his leg that makes him topple over. Mally and the lady, rush to the elf and hold him up. “There you go tough guy.”. “Please, don’t. You done more then enough. I can help myself.”. “Oh just shut up and let us carry you.” Mally retorts as they start to walk off. The woman and Mally stare out towards the sea atop Zools head as she swims back. “Man, what a day. Got to ride on a giant turtle, fought a monster, fought a giant, and saved the turtles life. He he, can’t wait to tell my mom about this.”. “Yeah, I do shit like this all the time. But its fun to have a partner around.”. “Really? Wow.”. The woman looks at Mally and says: “Hey uh, sorry about accusing you of stealing my picture.”. “Who was that with you?”. “Eh, my cousin that I hung out with a lot. I haven’t seen him in years.”. “Were you two close?”. “Very.”. Mally looks out to the sea, then something crops up in her head. “Wait a minute I didn’t even get your name.”. “Biz.”. “What?”. “It’s Biz.”. “Biz?...What kinda name is that?”. “What kinda name is Mally!?” Biz exclaimes defensivly. Both of them glare to the sea, until Mally pipes up and asks: “Hey, uh...You think after we get back to town...We...we can hang out some more?”. Biz stares at her for a moment before laughing. “Sure kid, why not. I’ll even throw in my hockey stick.”. “For real?”. “Yeah, sure. I got plenty of them. Might teach you how to fight with it when I take you along on my adventures.”. “Thanks. Maybe you can teach me a couple of those skating tricks too.” “Hee...Maybe.”. Both Biz and Mally look out as Zool swims forth, Townsville in the horizon along with the setting sun.

[lillaxtrigger]

The ghostly maid is on Hiatus

The ghostly miad is going on Hiatus, at least for a little while. I want to say a month, I'll try and keep it a month. I need more time to create more episodes. I've been finishing these last few ones on the dot mere days before release. I need more time to work on them. In the mean time, you can check out my other work over at my deviantart. Link down below: https://lillaxtrigger.deviantart.com/