ZAC walked into the focal center of the sewers. The center of Twitch’s kingdom. The massive tower once empty with the gushing of sewage is now surrounded by the steps of mutated plague rats on rusty metal pipes. The skitter of their legs as they go scout out new land for their master. He tried everything he could to stop it, to avoid it. He tried to convince Twitch about the firework actually being a bomb, or the thought that the humans were planning an all out attack when he saw no humans in one of the lower portions of Zaun. It was ZAC of course that led them out, but he didn’t say anything about the plague rat’s existence. When did maintaining a good friendship and keeping Zaun safe became so hard..
He wanted to talk to the plague rat about something. He needed to get the amulet away from him. Shouldn’t be that hard! Twitch was always easy to convince! If he can persuade Twitch that destroying the cloning machine was beneficial to the plague rat, he was pretty sure that he could take an amulet away. ZAC stepped into the cesspool and breathed in and out. Here goes nothing. The weapon jumped into the pool and swam towards the massive pipe.
ZAC jumped on the metal railing and peered into the cave. When I looked up, all of the rats stared at me. The buzzing of the lair stopped. All was silent. The only thing heard were the squishy footsteps of the weapon. He grew nervous at them all and called out the sewer king’s name. “Twitch? Are you there!?” ZAC called.
“Goopy One? You’re here.. Oh! Yes.. Yes! You wanted to talk to Twitch about something..” He called out, a hint of nervousness to his voice. “Come to me! Surely it must be important...”
ZAC made his way to his throne. As he did so, he noticed the markings on the wall of numbers that have been scratched out. 50, 80, 100... It all ended with a 500, waiting to end up like all the others. Next to the long array of numbers was the “ATTEMPTS” tally board and the wall of blueprints and recipes. The tally boards never changed since last month, and some of the recipes and blueprints were torn from the wall. What has Twitch been doing now? He always update these boards.
The weapon made way to what seemed like his “throne” room. Twitch was sitting on a massive pipe, head buried in his hands. The two rat soldiers remained side by side, crossbows ready at the rat’s command.
“Twitch?” I asked, voice echoing in the sewage chamber. Twitch jolted his head up.
“Oh.. It’s you!” Twitch shouted. He stood up, crossbow in hand and arms reaching his back for a cask. He was ready to fight. “W-what do you want to speak to Twitch about!?” he asked.
“Um.. I just want to talk to you regarding the amulet..” ZAC mumbled. Twitch stood there, still listening. “Well.. I need to talk to you. I know how much you hate humans.. but you have to stop these conquests.”
“WHY?” Twitch shouted, crossbow shaking in his hand. “Why should I stop... They’re the plague..”
“Yeah.. but listen.. I kinda don’t want you to get killed. The more you do these types of things, the more they’ll notice. And the more they notice, the more they’ll try to exterminate them right..? Come on.. Let me take that amulet away. I think about 500 fellow Plague rats are fine right? We can be happy with that?”
“NO!” Twitch screamed. ZAC stopped. “NO! Twitch can win this time.. It’s not like last time! And even then.. it will grow.. and grow.. and grow! I HAVE THIS!” Twitch raised the amulet in the air. “I will exterminate them..”
“Twitch.. stop saying that. They’re not bad. We’ve went over this befo-”
“So that’s what this is about.. They were right.. You were the traitor! You!”
“Wait.. what..? Twitch what are you saying..?”
“My subjects. They say you were the traitor.. The Goopy One! My first sentient subject.. My first ally! My first.. friend..”
“I’m sorry Twitch. But this is for your own good,” ZAC lied. “I promise we’ll make up after this!” He stretched his arms towards the the rat’s neck, only to be burned. His arm went back, black and crumbling to bits. The weapon looked up to see a red orb around his plague rat friend. The shield faded away.
“They are right.. You are the traitor..” Twitch hissed, grip tightening on the crossbow. “Can’t believe after all of this time..” The crossbow glowed as did the 2 rat men by his side. “Kill... KILL!” The guns fired. The arrows pierced through my elastic bulletproof body. POP! All was black.
ZAC woke up in the water. In the sewage. Unaware of what happened. He quickly swam up rapidly and found air. The blob got himself up on land and looked around. It was an empty sewage tunnel. No rats seemed to be around.. ZAC couldn’t think about what happened. He had to find a way to convince Twitch about this. it didn’t seem like he wanted to kill the blob. He was the only one who could talk him out of it.. ZAC quickly went to the ladder and climbed up. he knew where the next route they were planning to take. It was only a matter of time before they meet again. If he couldn’t stop this, no one will.
If he has to do it, he's at least hiding his face.
Venin's never had to worry about them before, Chem's wily and sharp. Anything they got into, they got out of it with on-brand flair and "naught but a scratch!"
Not this time, unfortunately.
The big capital h in the sky is much harder to make a daring escape from, and much harder to make a pragmatic rescue attempt to.
The terms he was given were explicitly clear.
This will be easier if he just gets it over with.
Magazines thrown in with dry flavorless rations in with a single water flask in with the shotgun he could never bring himself to throw away in with-
He's loading his supplies erratically- a very different scene from his usual calm, methodical, relaxing ritual. No music to hum to. No tapping toes or dramatic pirouettes, not even bothering to organize the contents of the bag into different pockets.
The card.
He stops.
He'd almost forgotten.
It's sat on the counter a few steps away, a bright sickening yellow with a crisply printed capital h.
It's stepped towards, falteringly.
It's stared at.
It's lifted.
His alias, printed on the back, next to an employee ID number.
"Venin, ID: 6388255377253601," in a cheery corporate font.
He feels a weight suddenly pressing down on him, his chest refusing to expand, a rising heat lifting up his neck and throat over his face and ear-
Venin rips a tearing scream and hurls the card across the room. It bounces, harmlessly, off the side of a terracotta planter pot, sliding to rest two steps right of the couch. Chem had been sleeping on it less than a day previous. He slides down the wall, curling in on himself against it, nevertheless strangled by the hot wash of shame.
He hasn't even done it yet.
But even knowing that, Venin can't help the choking sense of dread. He already feels wrong. Preemptive guilt? That is horribly pathetic. He's killed more people than this with just a knife and his hate, but this just... curdles his blood.
Extortion is a new experience.
It's awful.
When had he started crying?
He snatches up the card and throws it in the bag. A featureless black duster and a familiarly designed mask. Gloves. That shotgun.
“Greeeaaatttt...we have to find out what species you are. Hopefully the library in meridian has some sort of idea.”
Otto said as he rubbed his face. Fucking greyfaces, turning his friend into this fish thing! As if they needed anymore chaos in their lives..this was absolutely ridiculous.
“Are we sure this species resides in Polaris?”
Tanya wanted to be sure, what if they didn't and they lived in a more far off Galaxy?! They would never know what she had been turned into then! This was turning into a nightmare fast.
“They gotta be from here or solana or bogon. I mean, why would a greyface turn you into something that's not from one of the three big galaxies?”
That was a good point, why would they? They would have had to know what the creature is before turning her into one after all.
Ever since the first hallucination, he found himself too frightened to sleep. As soon as he would start to nod off, there it would be, in the very corner of his sight, those things, edging ever so closer. Was he being haunted by those that had been killed by his bio-weapons dealing? Perhaps it was his guilty conscience finally catching up to him, but whatever they were, thy wanted to make sure he knew.
The businessman's eyes were red and bloodshot and he had found himself a nice corner in his bedroom to sit in, knees pulled up to his chin and arms folded tightly around his legs. As soon as he'd feel his eyelids drooping and his head begin to sag, he'd see them, those atrocious mangled monsters, with their broken limbs, impossible gait, and broken jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth jutting out in strange positions, he'd snap back awake.
They, whatever they were, had him cornered and he was the only one that could see them. He was visibly shaken, his heart was hammering inside his chest, and the bug, the bug had been digging its little sharp spines into him. The physical manifestation of this was a fine trickle of blood from both of his nostrils.
Ricardo wasn't safe. Not asleep, and especially not awake.
Gintoki was getting tired (and maybe a little peckish) (okay maybe a lot more than just a little hungry; he was starving) and when he entered the candy store with the intention of buying some taffy to help little Rose loosen up that lose tooth, he ended up buying a whole lot more! A whole barrel in fact...
And when he finished that off, it made him more hungry. What was going on? As he purchased the fourth pack of gumdrops that hour, Rose looked up at him while chewing her taffy. "Daddy's gonna get fat," she bluntly stated.
Gintoki peered down at his daughter and gave a jeering smile. "Rose is gonna get fat too if that tooth doesn't come out soon!"
Rose continued to munch on her taffy, unfazed. "Mommy doesn't get fat when she eats ice cream all the time, so I'm not gonna either."
Gintoki's stomach protested loudly, demanding more food. Rose looked at him innocently. "Mommy says you shouldn't eat all those candies." She continued to eat the taffy. Genji walked up from behind holding a box of gummy worms.
"Can I get this Daddy? Pleeeease?"
Gintoki grabbed the box and added that to the gumdrops. "After we get this candy, let's go to an all-you-can-eat buffet... I'm starving..."
Well, nobody came to my aid. I am still stuck here in this god damn crate. I ain't got not much water.. it was too damn hot to not save it. My legs is stiff and I'm hungry as hell.
I haven't seen or heard a ship pass by, which is really making me upset. Damn I just want to go home, I miss the farm and whatever I left back in New Austin. Hell, in a way I wish I fought this damn war and got it over with. Even if I was to die in that fuckin' war it wouldn't matter. I ain't got much to live for any ways.
I bet 'Pa is rollin' in his grave right now. Not like there's much I can do.. I'm just hoping.. praying that somebody will come and help. That's all I can do.
Well, hard do say how I got stuck in this crate. I guess escaping the war wasn't a smart decision. What was I supposed to do? Fight for the god damn government that's done nothing for me but kill my family off and lie? Fuck no. So, here I am stuck in this crate in the sea going god knows where.
It's only been a day but damn, it's tight in here. I can barely move, there's barely any light. Just enough peering in from the cracks in the wood, which leak sometimes and it makes me nervous as hell. I hope this thing stays above water, I can't swim. There ain't much for food in here either, water is even worse. All I've got is a canteen full that I stole from the military base. I'm hungry as hell, I ain't had much to eat before I got tossed.
I just hope a ship will find me, I've got high hopes. I ain't too far from land, there's got to be some one out there looking for me, or the supplies I stole. Somebody's got to find a crate floating around here, I just hope I'm not a pile of bones before then.
