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slashbitch2 · 3 years

Text

Extra Complications

never expected to be crushing on an animated character but here we are

Next Chapter

It was sneaky. Perhaps cheating by some standards. But from your perspective, it was a damn good plan.

Ironically you'd seen the advertisement for the Alchemax internship right after being flung into a wall by the very same woman who'd likely approved the broadcast. Olivia Octavius, or Doc Ock as you ought to refer to her in costume. Though she'd given you little time to read up on 'how to apply', as moments later a car was thrown in your direction, which was very inconsiderate of her, but was also all the persuasion you needed.

At this point, you'd be willing to do anything if it contributed to thwarting her, surely, very evil plan. Of course you admired the woman for her general genius and eccentricity, but the constant unprovoked conflict was becoming tiresome. It felt as if she were trying to determine how much of a threat you posed, whereas, you liked to think your legacy as 'that Spider-Person who sometimes saves the day' was all the evidence necessary.

Honestly, you weren't certain as to what exactly her, no doubt, villainous plan entailed besides patrolling the streets in green swimming goggles and black spandex with ridiculous plastic tubes jutting out of her back. In fact, it was ridiculous that no one had made any attempt to stop her yet. Unlike your identity, kept secret by a more modest spandex suit, hers was public knowledge.

Sometimes, it seemed as though you were the enemy here.

Which is precisely why infiltrating her team of scientists was more than appropriate. You were about to single handily take down an international threat, one hidden in plain sight, but left untouched due to the company's vast money, leverage and prestige.

Someday the city would thank you for your many sacrifices. Specifically for voluntarily working another job without pay. Y/N Y/L/N, broke intern by day, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Person by night.

"Excuse me?" A voice called from the left, your vision of them obstructed by an inconveniently placed potted plant. "Are you the new intern?" The person stepped closer, briefly glancing up at you, then back down at a sheet of paper. "Y/N Y/L/N?" The woman's timid appearance hardly screamed villainous scientist, but then again, looks can be deceiving.

"Yes, that's me." You stood, reaching out to shake her hand.

She sighed in relief, shaking your hand a tad too enthusiastically. "Lovely to meet you. I'm Marie and I'll be getting you settled in for the first few days."

A spark of disappointment flashed across your mind. Olivia hadn't been there for your interview, nor had any sway in your hiring, and now she wasn't even the person greeting you on your first day. Although you had no right to be, you felt rather offended by the lack of challenge she was providing. It was almost too easy.

---

To be fair, Marie was the perfect candidate to give you a tour of the facility. She was kind and patient, but not condescending. She seldom spoke beyond what was required of her, unless you asked something work related, when her lengthy response would affirm her status as an epicure of scientific knowledge. By midday, you'd decided she was someone to befriend, and subsequently accepted her invitation to have lunch together.

You were also hoping that the team would eat lunch as a group, but alas, more disappointment. Instead, you spent the break sitting in an awkward silence with Marie, who seemed to loose basic communication skills when presented with food. In spite of her lack of engagement, you still took the opportunity to try and ascertain information about the project you'd be working on, though each time she expertly diverted the interrogation, or ignored your question entirely.

Who knew working for an evil, secretive corporation would be so boring?

It was a test of patience to be sitting in the same building as Olivia Octavius, while forced to shadow an incredibly kind, but slow eating woman. Realistically, you knew there'd be plenty of time to investigate, though you were reluctant to end the day without any progress. So, while Marie was still distracted by her lunch, you excused yourself to go to the bathroom.

She dismissively approved with a wave of her hand, allowing you to slip away from the dining hall. You vaguely remembered the location of Olivia's office as being on the top floor, indicated by Marie's imprecise pointing. She'd explained that very few had clearance to get in, but you'd already thought of a way to get passed the security.

Who aside from the highest ranking scientists had access to every room? Janitors, of course. Because, for some reason, cleanliness was more important than security.

It didn't take long to locate a cleaner, or much effort to pickpocket the security card. To be on the safe side, you even had an excuse ready: that the man had dropped it, that you were simply looking for him to return it. And if Olivia caught you in her office, well, she wouldn't (Spider-Senses and all). Again, it was almost too easy.

There was a minatory silence as you walked along the final corridor toward her office. Part of you felt as though this was some kind of elaborate trap, the repeated phrase 'too easy' coming to mind as you reached the door. Though the logical part of you must've known this was a fatuous suggestion, and took control.

With a final pause to confirm nobody was approaching, or was already waiting inside, you scanned the key card. The action was rewarded with a satisfactory beep, followed by the door sliding open so fast it appeared to have vanished.

The office was smaller than you anticipated. Or maybe it was the bareness of the room that caught you off guard. The woman was insane, yet her work area hardly reflected her deranged mental state. Everything was so perfectly neat that you began to wonder if you'd actually walked onto a movie set, or a photoshoot, which would've explained the strange ring lights hanging from the ceiling.

Upon reaching the centre of the room, you were struck by the realisation that you truthfully had no reason to be here. Even if the office had been as messy as you'd expected, it was unlikely that she'd leave her super evil plans lying around. Rather, It'd been some morbid curiosity that had lured you here. To see where The Doc Ock worked, where the alter ego was likely created. The reality was underwhelming to say the least.

Deciding that you'd spent enough time admiring an incredibly bland office, you exited back out into the empty corridor, nonchalantly throwing the security card behind you, certain someone would eventually return it. Then, as if right on cue, you sensed somebody approaching, soon followed by footsteps resonating from around the corner. With no way of avoiding them, you kept your head down with the intention of blending in.

Olivia Octavius rounded the corner, not sparing a glance up. She was frowning at a piece of paper, her full attention directed to it, blissfully unaware of your presence.

Instinctively, your entire body tensed at the sight of her lithe frame and mass of hair spilling out of its messy bun. Any other circumstance and you'd have fled by now, through a vent, out of the window, it didn't matter. Though you had to remind yourself that there was no reason to be afraid now. There was no possible way she could know your identity.

Nonetheless, as you passed her with less than a metre of space, you held your breath. She said nothing and you both kept walking in opposite directions.

It seemed the coast was clear. You released the breath you'd been holding and kept moving until. "Hey, wait a minute."

You froze, aching to ignore her and escape. Her voice was deep, more so than you were prepared for. While fighting, few words were exchanged, and even then they were unintelligible. Although, now was the worst time to be thinking about previous interactions, so with much difficulty, you cleared your mind. As far as anyone knew, including yourself, you were just the intern.

You ran a hand through your hair nervously, straightening out your lab coat and turning to face her. She was stood at the far end of the long white corridor, entirely unthreatening when compared to Doc Ock, who would've loomed over you menacingly.

Remembering the role you were meant to be playing, you choked out a response. "How can I be of assistance?"

"You're the new intern, right?"

"Yeah." You considered approaching to shake her hand, but the idea of awkwardly marching the length of the corridor to greet her was rather unappealing. "That's me." You settled for a polite smile and shoulder shrug instead.

She screwed up her face in consideration before crooking a finger. "Come with me."

Swallowing any concern, you nodded hesitantly. The prospect of returning to the office you'd broken into only moments ago had you dragging your feet.

She waited patiently until you were by her side to continue. "Don't worry." She scanned her key card. "I don't bite." Her tone was playful, her eyes kindly mocking.

"Good to know." You muttered, following her inside. You took a second to look around the room with mock curiosity, feeling her eyes trace your every move. Like a predator, eyeing up its prey, determining your weaknesses. Unlike the encounters with Doc Ock, it was uncertain who had the high ground here. Her gaze was putting you on edge, not dissimilar to how your character of 'the intern' would react.

"So..." She shuffled some papers around on the desk, finding what looked to be your application. "Ms. Y/L/N right?"

You confirmed with a nod, summoning the resolve to amble toward her desk.

"Take a seat." She gestured to the chair opposite, letting you sit before proceeding. "Tell me about yourself, Y/N."

You started to think of an adequate answer, but she interrupted a second later, contradicting her initial inquiry. "Are you okay with me calling you Y/N?" She leant her head on a closed fist, narrowing her eyes.

Although the question sounded considerate, you didn't feel the implied sincerity. Even if you wanted to say no, that didn't feel like a suitable response. "Sure."

Somehow, it felt like she was establishing dominance through the polite act, and combined with being under her scrutinising glare, the performance was working.

"Great." Suddenly, she leant back in her chair, all evidence of the hostile act disappearing instantaneously.

"What'd you want to know?" Mirroring her relaxed posture, you attempted to re-establish some control.

"Oh, anything." A flicker of something passed in her eyes, piqued interest possibly?

You began routinely rattling off some basic facts about yourself, nothing too specific or personal. Facts that would answer any follow up questions she might have, and yet said nothing about you. Surprisingly, she seemed hooked on your every word. The thought crossed your mind that this might be the real interview, that everything else up to this point had been a sham. But you settled on a more unsettling justification. That she was committing everything you said to memory.

Coming to the end of the informative monologue, you decided to take a risk. "Do I get to ask a question?" You raised an eyebrow challengingly.

"Inquisitive. I like that." She stated, folding her arms on the desk. "Go ahead."

You decided to see how far you could push your luck. "Tell me about yourself." You smugly repeated her vague first query. It was the Doctor's turn to come up with an answer to the ambiguous demand.

She scoffed, realising your plan to make her struggle. "Touché. But I'm rather busy, so how about you pick a more specific question."

Narrowing it down, there was only one thing you wanted to ask. "Can I see the-" You waved your arms around, imitating tentacles. "the suit?"

She chuckled, slowly standing. Judging from her lack of surprise, this was likely a request she'd heard many times.

First, she removed her glasses. Then slipped out of her lab coat. Next to go was the shirt, which she pulled over her head while maintaining eye contact. You wanted to look away, out of respect, yet you didn't. Without the shirt, you noticed she was already wearing the suit underneath and had the harness strapped to her back, confirming your suspicion that she always had access to the weapon. As she was stepping out of her trousers, the arms (tentacles?) inflated, and within moments were threateningly extending to their full potential.

She smiled proudly, enjoying your stunned expression. "As good as you expected?"

"Better." Unable to resist any longer, you stood to investigate the suit in further detail. You'd never seen it stationary, or had the opportunity to try and gauge the details of how it worked. Although you argued this would be beneficial for your next fight, in reality you just wanted to admire the contraption. You circled round, marvelling at the simplicity of the design. It was convenient, yet elegant. "It's beautiful."

Coming to a stop in front of Olivia, she had an unreadable expression. A mix of emotions, most prominently confusion. To your delight, a faint blush coloured her cheeks. Whatever unspoken game you'd been playing, you were winning, or were until she said. "How'd you like to intern for me?"

You quickly recovered. "I already do."

"No." She sighed. "I mean personally. As my assistant? You'd get your own desk, an almost guaranteed job at the end of it and so much more experience than you'd bargained for." She leant forward, a little too close for comfort. There was an unhinged look in her eyes more reminiscent of Doc Ock that both convinced and deterred you. "So what'd you say?"

She genuinely wanted you to work with her.

This hadn't been part of the plan. You'd expected to spend no longer than a few months working at Alchemax. To uncover their evil scheme, figure out how to stop it and hopefully take down the company. An optimistic plan, sure, but one you'd been assured you'd stick to. Although, the opportunity to work closely with Olivia Octavian, with the Doc Ock, was too good to pass on. Not to mention, infinitely more interesting.

You grinned, embracing the insanity that your answer would incur. "I'd love to."

She clapped her hands together. "Great!" Then offered her hand for you to shake formally. "I'll sort out the paperwork and details this evening, but right now if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to."

She left before you had the chance to say anything else, still in her suit, which left you confused for the following half hour. You finally understood upon catching a glimpse of a news alert on your phone.

Doc Ock Seizes Bank, Has Taken Hostages!

You sighed. Today was going to be a long day, and things were only going to get more complicated.

#olivia octavius x reader #olivia octavius

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escapist-dreams · 3 years

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Fix it ~ Invincible Fanfiction

Summary: Rex's hand gets damaged in a fight. No one is willing to help him, so he helps himself.

Warnings: spoilers for both the Invincible animated show(episode 7) and comics(issue #40) concerning Rex-Splode, injuries(nothing nearly as graphic as the source material)

Word Count: 2.3k

This is my first Invincible fanfic, and one of the first fics I've written in awhile! Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy! Feel free to tell me what you think about it! Constructive criticism would be appreciated :D

"We meet yet again, Invincible!" D.A. Sinclair shouted with his usual dramatic flair. He had escaped from the government facility a couple months ago and holed up in a sewer, making more of his fucked up 'reanimen' who the new Guardians of the Globe were now fighting.

His army of cyborgs were unleashed onto the fleeing crowd, more destructive than self destructive this time. Sinclair must've taken notes from his previous failures.

While they targeted the heroes, civilians were caught in the crossfire left and right. Dupli-Kate evacuated the remaining civilians while Shrinking-Rae fought off any cyborgs coming near. The rest of the team tried to disarm the cyborgs without killing them, which Mark made them agree to do before the fight.

Invincible went through one after the other, knocking out the cyborgs, one could tell he was holding back. Monster Girl knocked out a good chunk of them, but accidentally killed one or two with the strength of her monster form. One of them slammed her against a building, sending a big crack up the wall, no doubt affecting civilians in the upper floors. Shrinking-Rae rushed to save those in the building affected by the crack, while Monster Girl slumped against the wall, down for the count.

Rex-Splode made it past the wall of reanimen defending Sinclair and shot a projectile at his torso. He stumbled as the magnet hit his side and exploded, only grazing him but doing damage all the same. He cupped a hand around the wound, and when he regained his composure, looked directly at Rex.

"You'll pay for that!" With a movement of his hand, D. A. Sinclair ordered the cyborg to target Rex-Splode.

"Sure I will, asshole!" Rex smirked and raised his hand again, aiming for Sinclair's head. The cyborg intervened, lunging towards Rex, who dodged and backed away. He couldn't kill the guy, but he really didn't want to get beat to a bloody pulp today. He made a split second decision to shoot him in the legs to slow him down. He did so, but all he received for his efforts was the sound of a small metal impact. He'd missed the human parts, the projectile only slightly slowed the cyborg.

Just as he was about to shoot again, the cyborg grabbed his hand, crushing flesh and metal alike. Rex doubled over as a wave of pain hit him like a brick. He tried to push past it after a few moments, looking up just in time to see Robot come up behind the reaniman, knocking him out with a punch. Invincible grabbed a piece of metal from a street sign that had been crushed in the wreckage of the battle and bent it tightly around Sinclair, effectively trapping him. And since the cyborgs were all either knocked out or no longer under his control, the battle was over.

"You couldnt've done that earlier?" Rex complained as Mark tied up Sinclair, wincing in pain. Several members of the team gave him a familiar look of annoyance.

"Maybe if you weren't too busy cowering we would've finished this sooner." Samson stated.

"I wasn't--!" Rex began, but he doubled over again before he could finish, another wave of pain hitting him.

The rest of the team had sustained some injuries as well, but they were able to shake it off for the most part by the time they arrived back at the guardians' base.

"Hey Robot-" Rex tried to catch him before they fully returned to the group.

"It's Rudy."

"Right. Rudy, can you uh.." he pointed to his busted up hand, the blood dried onto the metal. Rudy made a wincing sound at the sight, then looked to their friends, who were in a group celebrating the won battle.

"Hm.. That's going to take a bit to fix, if you can wait I'll fix it in a couple minutes." he decided. Rex opened his mouth to protest, but closed it and nodded in agreement. The two rejoined the group.

They spent a few minutes having conversations in small groups, some about the fight, and some about completely different things. After about half an hour passed, Mark got up from his seat, explaining that he needed to get back home, as he had some homework to finish up. Slowly the group dissolved, rejoining their everyday lives. Rex ran to catch Rudy before he and Amanda left.

"Hey Rudy, can you fix this thing before you go? If you couldn't tell, it *kinda* hurts." Rex gestured to his hand, pulling the glove up a bit to show the broken metal and bloody skin.

"Can it wait, Rex? Me and Amanda are getting lunch." he paused, conflicted, "you can join if you want." he offered politely, but judging by the looks on his and Amanda's face, it wasn't an invitation.

"I'll pass." Rex sighed, unsure if he was more angry or sad about it at this point. Rudy shrugged as if to say "your loss", and he and Amanda left the base. Rex left as well a few moments later, Kate and Rae's conversation fading behind him as he made his way to his apartment.

Rex tried to ignore it, he really did. But god, it hurt. He must've been in shock before, but now that he had time to really think about and feel the injury, the pain set in. The metal of his hand had torn into his flesh and he was afraid to move it for fear of further lodging it into his arm. After awhile of trying to ignore the injury, Rex decided he couldn't take it anymore. If no one would help him, he would help himself.

Rex knew a thing or two about robotics since he got his powers from the devices in his wrists, and had been taught a bit at the facility for use in battlefield situations. So he got some spare tools he used for small repairs on his arms and got to work fixing his hand. It took just about all night, but by the end he was fairly confident that he'd at least helped the situation.

He must've done something right because next time the guardians fought a villain, he was able to shoot the projectiles from his hand. No need to ask Rudy for help. And the next time it was damaged, and he fixed it himself again. This time his aim was slightly off. He hit several walls, the ground, and nearly a civilian before his desired target, but it was fine, right? He hit the guy eventually, he missed the civilian, and it still worked decently well.

He continued to repair it himself, using the knowledge from his previous mishaps to improve upon it. It continued to have slight malfunctions, but it worked.

Until it didn't.

He aimed, and shot, but the small explosive wouldn't budge. It wouldn't leave his hand, something blocked it. The BB lit up as he tried to shoot, but it exploded in his hand.

"Fuck!" Rex yelled, throwing a magnet from his belt with his offhand and dodging out of the way of an oncoming attack.

The team made quick work of the enemy, but not before they got a few good hits in on Dupli-Kate and Monster Girl as well. Amanda was slumped against a wall while Kate Prime nursed an injury on her side.

Back at the base, Rudy was busy being at Amanda's side. She had a minor concussion, but overall she was alright. The excessive blood from a cut on her head made the injury look more serious than it was. They were thankful that she was alright, minus a bit of blood loss and a head injury.

Rex wanted to celebrate her quick recovery longer than he did, but hesitantly left after drinks were had and the party died down a bit. He knew he would have to work on his hand for awhile to get it in working order and get any sleep that night.

It was already much later in the day by the time he arrived at his apartment. Repairs went well for the most part. He had passed out before realigning the metal, but quickly aligned it before heading to the base that morning, presumably deeming it functional, which was an achievement in Rex's opinion considering how badly it was broken and lack of materials. He got hardly any sleep, but he wasn't exactly the type to usually get a full eight hours every night anyways.

The next day after training, Rudy approached Rex unexpectedly.

"Hey Rex, I noticed your hand got busted up pretty badly yesterday. Need me to fix it?" Rudy offered, glancing at Rex's barely-together hand with a hint of what might be worry. Rex scoffed.

"Oh no it's fine," he said, half proud of his work and half bitter at Rudy. "I figured it out."

Rudy gave him a curious look, pausing for a moment before repeating, "You 'figured it out'?"

Rex nodded, taking off his glove and showing off his hand, which he'd barely been able to peice back together the night before. "I figured it out."

He'd had to patch up the hand with spare metal parts and slightly off-size bolts, but it wasn't too bad of a job. From a certain angle, it'd look fine even. A bit busted up, used for sure, but functional. Now, from the angle of someone with as much knowledge in robotics as Rudy had, the sight was returned after a long pause with a vaguely annoyed, "this is going to take awhile."

"What're you two doing?" Amanda asked, walking into the workroom with a half empty carton of disguised booze.

"Rex tried to fix his hand. By himself." Rudy explained condescendingly after a pause that made it obvious he was focused on his work. Rex scoffed at the answer.

"I think I did a great job, thank you very much." And besides being proud of his attempt at fixing it, the way he phrased it made Rex sound like an idiot, as if he hadn't asked for help several times before deciding to fix the problem himself.

"You put the metal covering back in place just off enough to block the projectile, the bolts are all the wrong size, and part of it is still jabbing into your arm. This isn't even the right kind of.." he trailed off, clicking a new bolt in place before mumbling, "how did you even fight like this-?!"

"Well it's not like you bothered to help me when I asked.." Rex answered with the tone of an upset child.

"You didn't say how bad it was."

"I showed you! You saw it!" Rex nearly shouted, frustration and anger bubbling up in his chest and out his mouth.

"I would have fixed this easily if you'd asked sooner."

"I did ask sooner!"

"You could've asked when I wasn't busy." Rudy spoke nearly absent-mindedly, focusing intently on prying part of the metal out of damaged tissue that tried to heal around it.

Rex hissed in pain before responding, "When were you not busy? I asked you like three times, you told me to wait!"

"I just told you, I was busy. Why didn't you go to Cecil for this?"

"Oh yeah, like I'm asking some creepy ass guy from the government to fix my hand- No fucking way!" Rex tried to ignore the hint of fear in his chest at the idea of some shady government operative poking and prodding at him in a blindingly white room.

"You'd rather bother me than ask someone whose job it is to fix things for help?"

"I'd rather ask my friend for help!"

"You could have asked when I wasn't busy." Rudy repeated, obviously struggling to keep his cool. "I'm not going to drop everything for you, Rex!"

"Yeah? Of course not, but I bet you'd drop everything for her." Rex pointed at Amanda, who had a front row seat to the argument standing in the doorway. The two locked eyes for a moment, then Rudy looked away to glare at Rex.

"At least she offers something to the team. She's an invaluable asset and I need to keep her safe." He didn't need to shout, his tone and words cut deeper than raw anger could.

"Well pardon me for wanting to be able to use my fucking hand--"

"Excuse me?" Amanda snapped, glaring at Rudy. "Rex is my friend, and I won't reciprocate your crush on me just because you look like him and aged down for me. I don't owe you shit. And being a dick to the guy whose face you stole doesn't make you more appealing."

"But I--" Rudy was at a loss for words; a rare occurrence. Scrambling to regain his composure, he blurted out, "But I did this for you!"

"I don't owe you shit for that." she repeated firmly. "And if how you treat Rex is any indication, I wouldn't want to be with you, if this is how you treat a long time friend who needs help."

"Exactly!" Rex agreed, relieved that Amanda stepped in. Rudy glared at him before catching himself and looking back towards Amanda, who sighed angrily.

"He couldn't have asked Cecil!?" Rudy reiterated, grasping at straws trying to 'win' the argument he'd already lost.

"He's obviously uncomfortable with that, or he would've done it already. Something you would notice if you bothered to give him a second glance." Amanda snapped back. "He came to you for help, and you lectured him for it."

"I.."

"Let's go, Rex. This asshole isn't worth our time." she decided. Rex followed her out the door to rejoin the rest of the group with a satisfied sort of pride in his chest. It felt nice to be defended by someone other than himself.

The door slammed shut.

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gear-project · 3 years

Note

I think Robbie is actually a minor character from Guilty Gear Begin. A friend of mine has been working on translating the novel. Apparently he's a polish (?) researcher that was loosely involved with the gear project and had some kind of familial (?) relationship with Vince. I'm not entirely sure on this (Also, Robbie might not be his direct name, you know how it is with accurately transcribing character names from japanese), but this seems to be the most likely case.

Mhhhh... must’ve missed that part. Yeah that’s pretty obscure. Thanks for picking up on it and correcting me.

I haven’t fully read through the Spanish translation yet, I just had a rough summary to go on.

SPOILERS TO THE GGBEGIN NOVEL AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Okay, as far as I understand things were supposed to go like this:

1. Asuka made a contingency plan in case the U.S. Government or some other group would make an attempt on stealing his Gear Cell Research.

2. He entrusted Frederick with the job of sending that data to Vince MacDonell before the military could get their hands on it. He also framed Frederick as the “leaker” of that data (stating that the Military group supporting him would need to kill Frederick as a witness).

3. Just after Frederick was successful in “sending” the data he smuggled out of the lab, he was “assassinated” by Asuka with a group of Military Soldiers present, but what they didn’t know was that the Bullet that killed Frederick also contained the Flame of Corruption Seed/Gear Cell information that would transform Frederick’s body in to a Gear.

After the conversion was complete, Frederick woke up in a pool of his own blood. A good amount of time had passed between when he was “killed” and when he “woke up” again, and he had a case of amnesia as a result.

4. After the “data” from Frederick was sent to Vince, it was intercepted by the CIA who were investigating rogue military elements that had broken off from their organization in order to steal the Gear Cell Research.

In an attempt to investigate what happened, they sent in CIA agent member Viidia. Viidia tried to find out what happened (disguised as a Scientist) but got locked in one of the labs until Frederick found her.

5. After the Gear Owls incident and the elevator shaft incident, they found the entrance to Section Gamma but it’s flooded and has Gear Crocodiles which force them to retreat back up the stairs just as another explosion in the underground complex occurs.

6. Confirming his suspicions of Viidia, Frederick interrogates her, and she finally confesses the truth about being a CIA agent, but also that Sarge is not a Scientist either, but one of the rogue soldiers that was trying to steal Gear Cell Research.

Out of options, Sarge shoots Dustin Barrie (one of the surviving scientists) and tries to kill Viidia, but Frederick breaks his wrist.

The remaining scientists in the group feel compelled to rely on Sarge as their main method of escaping the facility, but Sarge reveals there isn’t much time left before the Facility is destroyed. Sarge also reveals that it was Asuka who shot Frederick and was probably the one who turned him in to a monster Gear.

Unable to believe Sarge’s words, Frederick decides to confront Asuka directly.

Later, entering a T-junction near Section Gamma, Sarge set a trap for the surviving Scientists, as he had anticipated another complex explosion and had them caught up in it... using the hole from the blast to escape in to Section Gamma proper.

Frederick and Viidia managed to survive the blast, but give chase after Sarge when he escapes.

7. Frederick and Viidia chased Sarge to the 6th Special Laboratory where they see a lot of dead bodies. Sarge unleashes a Gear Grizzly Bear from one of the research pods, and its ability to heal rivals Frederick’s.

During the struggle, they try to engage the Bear, but nothing works. They even tried getting the bear to attack Sarge, but he was wearing a bracelet that allowed him to give orders to the Bear, and so the Bear would never attack him.

Frederick is knocked near a hole in the lab, and Viidia gets an idea to trick the Bear in to falling in to the hole... it works, but only temporarily. The Bear grows Gear tentacles and pierces Viidia’s chest climbing on the way back up, mortally wounding her.

Before she dies, she makes Frederick promise to do everything he can to stop the military... finally giving in to his destructive impulses, Frederick chants “Dragon Install” for the first time.

With this power, Frederick is now on equal terms with the Bear. Witnessing the uncanny fight before him, Sarge grows fearful and runs to the escape ship to get to the surface.

8. Asuka witnesses the battle from within the escape ship, and is now certain Frederick won’t die.

Sarge confronts Asuka, stating he tried to pull a fast one and turned Frederick in to a Gear, but Asuka doesn’t give a straight answer. Knowing he still needs the military’s resources to save Aria, Asuka convinces Sarge by speaking to Frederick via a com unit, telling him he wants him “to please die”.

Frederick hears the words from Asuka via the intercom but isn’t convinced, despite having killed the Bear he was just fighting.

Just prior to the ship’s launch phase and escape, Frederick manages to grab on to the edge of the ship’s platform...

Sarge tries to shoot Frederick but misses, but then Asuka takes Sarge’s gun and points it at Frederick coldly.

Unable to believe what’s happening, Frederick pleads with Asuka to stop.

Asuka, with no other choice to maintain his façade, shoots Frederick squarely in the head.

Frederick falls from the escaping ship and tumbles down the shaft to the bottom, screaming Asuka’s name and demanding why...

The facility explodes and the rubble falls on top of Frederick, burying him alive.

Afterwards, Frederick climbs his way out of the collapsed underground tunnel, swearing revenge on his former best friend. He escapes the area before rescue sirens come to the area.

Sometime later, Frederick is seen building his Limiter in a run-down shack.

As for Robbie, I can’t confirm if he has any connection with Vince Macdonell or not. I’d have to look further in to it. But thanks for pointing this out, nonetheless.

Suffice to say, the CIA and the rest of the American Government froze the project for a time... that is, until the 2040s when they became desperate for a fresh Military Program.

#Whoops!#Vince Macdonell #GGBegin #Guilty Gear Begin #SPOILER ALERT #Viidia #Sarge #Dustin Barrie

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nobody7102 · 5 years

Text

We Are Here

Paring: Eddie Kaspbrak x reader

Warnings: Slight abuse(physical and sexual), swearing, attempted suicide, fluff, bad spelling.

Word count: 2284 words

Request by @artlovingbre

Prompt: I was wondering if you can do an Eddie Kaspbark x reader when they are at the hotel and Eddie was cleaning up after the leaper part at the pharmacy and the reader is in her room looking for something and Henry is in her room instead of Eddie’s and he tried to force himself on her and Richie, Eddie, Ben, and Benverly saves her. And Eddie comforts her in the end.

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to post this, I’ve been a little busy with school but I’m proud that I finally have this done. I altered it a little bit from the request, I hope you enjoy!

The water of the shower could be heard through the thin walls of the hotel, and the smell of vomit wafted in the air though there was no vomit in Y/N’s room, there was however vomit in Eddie’s room next door.

Y/N had been lucky in getting her token, yes her quest for it was horrifying due to nearly getting trapped by your own mind.

That damn flower, your token had been in the form of a bundle of bloodroot. Given to you by your personal living hell Henry Bowers, after the losers club disbanded in 1989 Bowers had for some reason taken an interest in you, and thus for the last few weeks of summer you were his personal indentured servant. Doing whatever he wanted you to do, but the line in the sand held up when it came to anything illegal and sexual. He never got more than a makeout.

In Derry the flower was only found near the river, so that’s where you went. From the other Loser’s standpoint they would have thought that Bowers was the challenge Pennywize made that you had to get past in order to get your token. But it was yourself.

You watched yourself emerge from the river, and almost was pulled into the river itself. When she had gotten back from the river Eddie had met her outside of the hotel doors taking in each other's shaken state, and upon entering Beverly, Ben, Bill, and Mike could be found in the lounge all faces covered with terror as Richie stormed up to his room. No one bothered to ask why you smelled like a wet dog or why Eddie was covered in vomit simply because they knew getting a token was like going through hell.

What the others didn’t know was that Eddie was the only one who knew about what happened between Y/N and Bowers that summer and he made sure to let you get away from everyone else first knowing you’d be shaken up the worst of the two. Eddie was her rock, and the only girl in Derry that Mrs. Kaspbrak trusted to be alone with her little Eddie-kins. When Y/N wasn’t with Bowers when the losers temporarily disbanded, she was with Eddie calming him over his health worries, him helping her deal with Henry, the two just worked together. And everyone of the losers knew it..

So here there Y/N sat, water dripping from Y/H/C hair as she tried to calm her racing thoughts.

Walking along the bank Y/N watched were the sand met the grass and a tree, that was were she’d find her token.

“You know you’ll just end up going back to him” The voice sounded familiar but she couldn’t pinpoint who it was. Nonetheless she continued to walk.

“You’ve been his and always will be. Did you really think you could get rid of him by leaving” Looking to the water there stood Y/N, but not Y/N….. another Y/N. Dripping water, lips blue and skin sunk in and her hand outstretched to the Y/N standing on the sandbank.

Moving to sit father back on the bed Y/N retreated under the blankets, burrowing into them. Closing her eyes and thinking of being back at her apartment ...being wrapped up in a blanket on the couch with Eddie reading a book or just talking.

You two were a bit more lucky than the rest of the losers. After you all went off to college and forgot your horrid childhood in Derry, you and Eddie had the luck of meeting at a college party. Since then you and he had been inseparable. He helped you through your time looking for a job and an apartment. You helped him through his divorce with Myra, and long story short you two had already kind of reconnected, became roommates, and needless to say when you and Eddie both got the call from Mike about coming back to Derry, both of you were absolutely terrified.

Feeling a shift in weight on the bed, with her eyes still closes Y/N rolled into her side feeling a hand rest on her face.

“Eddie?....could you maybe dry off from your shower then do that.”

“That freak wishes he was me”

The hand went to your throat and your eyes shot open. Ladies and Gentlemen the one and only Henry Fucking Bowers.

“Miss me baby?” A shit eating grin came upon him.

Running of the water filled the air as the Y/N from the watery grave stood at the edge of the bank holding a hand out to Y/N.

“You know he won’t go away. He will never go away.”

“...N-no..” she forced herself to speak, “he is locked away, he is in the mental facility….he….he is gone.”

“We both know that’s a lie Y/N” water dripped down her face “...and we both know how this’ll end… He will never be gone…..you know what we have to do, do what Mom did. What Stan did… you know its what we have to do.” the watery Y/N backed away submerging herself into the water once again before her head disappeared below the water.

Y/N slowly made her way over to the water and began to walk in, she knew she shouldn’t but… the memories that came flooding back…. Memories that not even Eddie or derry knew of.

In his other hand he held a knife gliding it along her cheek “Because I missed you” he dragged it closer to her mouth “I want you to know that I forgive you for that summer baby…..and if you scream” he leaned down to her ear “I’ll do what I should have done 27 years ago.” licking the shell of her ear Bowers slowly moved himself to stand and moved the knife to her abdomen.

Looking to the night stand he noticed the flowers

“I want you to strip baby.... Just like the old days”

“I didn’t give you jack shit in the old days.” Y/N spat sitting up.

“Thats what you think baby. But if I rem-” a knock came to the door, “You keep your fucken mouth suck you whore.” digging the knife further into her abdomen but not enough to draw blood. Another knock came.

“Y/N, we were all gonna order a pizza.”

It was Bev, regardless of what he heard Bowers kept all his attention on Y/N. mumble came from the hall as the conversation about food for the night continued.

“What did she say?” Ben, he was wise enough to know that Y/N would say something if they interrupted her sleep… he remembered that right?

“I don’t know, she hasn’t said anything”

“She’s probably asleep.”

No! Come on Ben she yelled at you for waking her up one time after she gave you a warning.

“Fuckers why haven’t we ordered pizza, is Eddie being picky about having to share?”

Richie, finally someone who would barge into her room.

“Eddie Spaghetti! We are having pizza get over it!” he banded on Eddie’s door,

“Fuck-face I have no issue with pizza, they’re waiting for Y/N”

“Oh...has she given you a warning?”

Bowers glared daggers at Y/N mouthing “what warning?”

“This!” she quickly backed away from the knife, grabbing the lamp off of the nightstand on the other side of the bed. Throwing it at him.

By now everyone outside had heard the lamp being thrown, and shouts of concern filled the air as they rammed the door.

“You little whore!” Henry shouted nearly avoiding the lamp. Charging over to the other side of the bed Y/N scrambled trying to get to the bathroom. Catching her arm, Bowers yanked her backwards as the door finally was forced open.

Holding the knife back to her abdomen he turned her towards the losers.

“Move and the bitch dies.”

Bev, Ben and Richie all slowly put their hands up but Eddie tried to make his way over to Y/N and Bowers.

“Take one more step and see what happens! I dare you!”

Water up to her shoulders, tears streaming down her face thoughts flowed through her head and the thought of Eddie… she hadn’t told him how she felt… that she loved him, that she had loved him since childhood, that she fell in love with him again after they had met in college, that coming back to Derry had made all those feelings stronger. Forcing her feet to move back towards land Y/N Felt hands on her shoulders as a force shoved her head below the water.

Arms flailing about as the water became a muck with bubbles and dirt she tried forcing herself upwards but the force held her in the same spot. Suddenly everything started to go dark her flailing became weaker and her eyes slowly started to shut.

“Eddie plea-”

“Not another word out of you!” The knife went back into her side, this time drawing a little blood. “Look at all of you, weak. Pathetic.”

“Have you seen yourself? You still have that same fucken mullet, it been like fifty yea-”

“SHUT UP! Shut up germ freak, or your little whore here dies.”

If looks could kill Eddie would have just committed over-kill. Fist forming, eyes wide, yet his feet didn’t move knowing the risk of that could happen.

“Here’s what we’re gonna do fucktards, All of you are gonna go into the next room, and I’m gonna take what’s mine and go back to the barnes. If any of you try anything I will gut her right here righ no-” CLANK!

Henry’s grip on Y/N loosened she bolted over to Eddie collapsing into his arms tears streaming down her face..

Henry had fallen to the ground unconscious as Bill stood over him, the back lid of the toilet in his hands.

“Woah Big Bill! How the fuck did you get into the bathroom?!” Richie slowly staggered over to Bowers and Bill, taking the knife out of Bower’s hand.

“T-turns out c-limbing in a win-w-window isn’t that h-h-hard.” he dropped the porcelain lid.

Feeling the weight leave her shoulders she felt someone pull her up from the water. Hearing a voice she thought been dead.

“Come on Y/N, You know Eddie’s gonna kick your ass. It’s not your time! You’re not meant to be here yet!”

Groaning feeling the rocks of the sandbank the voice continued.

“That’s it Y/N, wake up! You still have to get the flower. Come on I believe in you! Besides you need to tell Eddie, we both know you need to tell him.”

“Stan?..” Slowly opening her eyes she glanced around before sitting up.

She was alone. Yet she knew Stan had been there… she felt his presence, had…..had he saved her?

Seated on the couch in front of the fireplace of the hotel Y/N and Eddie sat next to one and other, Eddie had wrapped a blanket around Y/N he continued a conversation will her trying to take her mind off of what had just happened. This wasn’t the first time Eddie’s had to distract Y/N from having a panic attack, but this was the first time it was after a life or death situation so the steaks were a little higher.

“So you think Stan saved you?”

“I swear to god it was his voice Eddie…..and he…… he pulled me from the water” Y/N had pulled the blanket tighter around herself. “.... he told me it wasn’t my time, and that I-....” she stopped herself taking a breath debating whether she truly wanted to open this door.

“Hey. You know you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to… we’ve known and lived together long enough for you to know that I’m not gonna push you to say anything.” he took her hand in his.

“I know…. But if I don't say this now I don’t think I’ll ever do it… and god I need to say this.” Y/N let out a sigh moving to more face Eddie, squeezing his hand a bit.

“Eddie… we both know that the relationship that we had as kids was a bit…..”

“Different” he chimed in chuckling

She smiled “Yes. Different…. I don’t know if its because we just spent too much time together as kids or because you were there for me when Bowers was my living hell…” she paused taking a breath. “Eddie…. I-......I loved you, I have science middle school and i don’t know how I forgot but after we found each other again in college…. Everything, all of my feelings for you were amplified. And coming back here” she looked at their intertwined hands “It was like opening the floodgates. And Stan was right… I needed to tell you this..”

“Oh thank god” Eddie let out a sign squeezing Y/N’s hand back “....Stan would always tell me in high school ‘come on man just tell Y/N how you feel’.... And I never thought anything would happen from it…. Looks like I was wrong… and like you said coming back just heightened everything…...then when I saw Bowers I-...I was terrified, but we’re here and he is gone, far far gone, and I swear to you Y/N I won’t ever let that happen… but we are here and…..and that’s enough right now because I love you and that’s all that matters.”

Y/N looked up form their hands seeing the smiling Kaspbrak. Moving closer to him she rested her head on Eddie’s shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her waist. A soft humm came from the two as he kissed her forehead, not long after that the two passed out on the couch in front of the fire. And they were there. Together in their own little bubble for the time being.

#it #it chapter 2 #it chap 2 #eddie kaspbrak #eddie kaspbrak x reader #adult eddie kaspbrak #adult eddie kaspbrak x reader #james ransone #james ransone x reader #it x reader #it chapter 2 x reader #it chap 2 x reader #nobody7102 masterlist #nobody7102 writing tag #one shot #losers club 2019

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amazingflyingdick · 4 years

Text

the toxin.

WHO: Dick @amazingflyingdick, Jason @thatsjasonfkntodd, Tim @redrobin-timdrake, Barbara @the-orxcle, & Slade @terminator-deathstroke WHERE: A random warehouse WHEN: May 17th, 2020 WHAT: Jason, Tim, & Barbara put out a fake hit on Dick to lure Deathstroke into a trap

Jason: Coming up with the details for the fake job hadn’t taken him too long in the grand scheme of things. He had not shared those particular details with Dick ahead of time, though, not wanting to deal with a back and forth when what they needed to do was get moving. He’d passed them along to Tim to get up on the Dark Web, and within a couple of days of the conversation in the Batcave, there was a hit up for Dick Grayson himself, aka Nightwing, and the buyer was offering payment up front rather than upon completion. If Slade was willing to take the contract legitimately, offering the money straight away would get him there. If, somehow, a streak of sentimentality Jason found it difficult to believe he possessed made him act instead to prevent the hit from happening at all, he’d certainly show up to meet the buyer. Either way, it got him where they wanted him to be. Dick, as they’d agreed, would be the ‘buyer’ he ended up meeting, and he even had the cash to play the part.

That was the easy part. The real difficulty had been deciding how the fuck to take Deathstroke down. Dick claimed he knew how he fought, and maybe he did, but that didn’t erase the fact that Slade was not only a prolific assassin and an absolute tank of a man, but was metahuman to boot. He wasn’t banking on Dick knowing him to be enough. Especially when Slade has personally handed Jason enough information while taunting him to make things much easier.

Poison, he’d said. It had to be one hell of a poison, too. Bruce had access to a whole cadre of neurotoxins, and if he had access, so did they. He’d let Tim run with the idea to mix up something that would have killed an elephant but probably not Slade Wilson. Hopefully. And if it did, Jason wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it.

Dick: It wasn't until Dick rendezvoused with Tim and Jason that he realized he was the target. He hadn't been involved with generating the hit or getting it out there in Slade's sphere. The Dark Web was familiar territory, but it might as well be Tim's backyard. There was no reason to check up after them when he trusted they could handle it themselves. Babs’ involvement made things a little weird, even though she’d known about his past with Slade for years.

The covert location was set up in the basement of the warehouse, just in case Slade already had eyes on it. That was one thing Dick was sure to arrange ahead of time. They needed to get inside first, unseen, so Slade wouldn't bail the second he realized it was all a trap. There was no way he could disguise himself well enough to not be recognizable - at least not to Slade - and he didn't even entertain the notion.

"Can't believe you ordered a hit on me," he said for about the fifth time, eyeing the toxin with a faint frown. "You said this is what was used on him last time?"

Tim: This was going to work. He reiterated it to himself yet again as he stood with Jason and Dick. They had planned it out and he had brought up every hole he could find in the plan so they could come up with contingencies. He'd been the one to get into Bruce's records of toxins, find the ones he thought would work together. He'd mixed up the cocktail that was going to slow Slade down. Deathstroke was difficult to take, but Tim had meant it when he had said they were capable of doing it. Deathstroke was just one man. They were a well-oiled machine.

"It had to be you," he said to Dick for the umpteenth time. "Either he gets off on taking you out, and we know he's tried before with Rose and with his fake Titans, or he comes here to see who's trying to take you out." If it was that latter... well that would be awkward but the potential for Deathstroke to do something or hurt someone was enough to justify the pre-emptive action they were taking. And Tim wasn't sure Deathstroke would ever say he came to protect Dick. So they'd never really know. It was an infuriating thought, as Tim deeply hated not knowing things, but it was a thought nonetheless.

He looked over to Jason. "Do you have the dart ready?" He asked. "Best case scenario, he takes his mask off and you can get him from a distance. Worst case, we'll have to jump him first and you'll have to stab him with it." He gave a little smile, teasing lightly, "Think you can handle it?"

Babs: She had cameras not only unseen on the three of them, but control of all the security cameras on the premises. To anyone but her, they were conveniently malfunctioning for the duration of this meeting. She wasn’t sure what to feel with all this, so instead of feeling, she focused on the job ahead of them. Deathstroke needed to be taken in, it was as simple as that. No matter how much she wished she could be physical backup, she’s more than relieved to have Jason and Tim with him. There was backup if, somehow, things went south and the assassin got the upper hand.

“Let’s just not make putting hits out on each other the usual, deal?” The smirk is practically audible through the comm as her eyes are trained on the cameras outside the property on her screen. After Damian’s slip up, she wasn’t looking away for a moment, not when everything was so important, “Tim’s right, for a master assassin, this was pretty predictable of him,” even if they didn’t know how he’d want this to end, getting here was predictable.

Jason: “We couldn’t risk him passing the contract up. It had to be something that had some kind of pull besides just cash.” Because when it came down to it, he had difficulty believing Deathstroke actually needed most of the money he raked in. “Can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind before though, Babs. No guarantees.”

Jason had his mask on, not to protect his identity anymore, but because it afforded some extra layer of protection if things boiled down to a real fight. Let Tim get his nose broken. Jason didn’t feel like it. In any case, it prevented either of them from seeing him roll his eyes. “Yeah, Tim, I’ll do my best to handle one dart.”

Dick: Now that things were getting down to the wire, Dick was quieter than usual. He kept looking at the time and he couldn't sit still. Instead he paced, his arms crossed over his chest, and tried to appear as calm as possible. He'd already taken a look at Slade's file and told Jason that Gordon might not be able to hold him. There was no evidence against Deathstroke and eyewitness testimony was shaky at best. This was a huge risk for what could possibly be very little payoff. It was one reason why Dick was second guessing the entire thing.

He did know that he didn't want either of them in a physical confrontation with Slade. "Don't move in unless you absolutely have to," he said sternly. "I'll get him to take his mask off."

Tim: Tim was about to speak when a piece of equipment he had rigged up to the security systems he'd placed around the warehouse pinged and he looked up. "He's here," he said simply. "Positions." Honestly, he was praying that the tranquilizer he mixed was as fast acting as it was supposed to be. If not... Jason was going to get the fight that Tim could see he was ready for by the way he was standing. "Right in the neck, Jay," he reminded, letting his calm settle over him as his eyes scanned the room for the umpteenth time for any contingencies they could use if this went awry.

Babs: Barbara sees movement on her cameras the exact moment she sees Tim perk up. “Alright, my mic’s off. Good luck.” she reminds everyone, and mutes herself. She knew they couldn’t be too careful with someone with the senses of Slade Wilson. She wasn’t convinced the other two would go unnoticed in the same vicinity, but this was the best bet they had, so she’d kept silent on that front. Not every plan was faultless, this one was no exception. As she watches Deathstroke enter, she folds her hands in front of her mouth and looks on.

Slade: Slade had taken the job not to kill Dick Grayson. That would be counterintuitive to every move he had made ten years ago. He had wanted a message sent so that he could quash the sentiments Nightwing had expressed to him that last night together. He had needed to do that so that Dick didn't end up scrubbed into the concrete by Deathstroke's boot or that of one of his enemies. He wasn't showing up to kill him if he wanted him to live.

Still, someone had had the audacity to take out this hit and someone had had the audacity to ask for Deathstroke specifically. Billy had told him what the job entailed, and the payout had been almost absurd. Dick was good, but he wasn't sure what he had done to land this kind of hit with this kind of payout on him. Not recently, at least. Regardless, Slade was going to find out. Because, in spite of himself, he had managed to shake off Dick having any kind of warm feeling beyond caring enough not to compromise his moral code so he could blow Slade's brains out when he was vulnerable. But that didn't mean that Slade had successfully shaken his own bullshit off. He had just known how to bury it. He wasn't going to turn down the job and let some other asshole get lucky. He could picture some blowhard like Floyd Lawton as the second choice. Not a chance Slade would take.

He should have known something was off when he stepped into the warehouse and it was quiet... removed, almost. He didn't trust it and he reached up to draw his katana even as he moved deeper into the facility. His heightened senses were on full alert and Slade's danger sense could tell that this was not some run of the mill business man. Who the fuck had called for him?

He figured it out mere moments before he pushed open the door to the next room. It was a steady thumping that he had all but memorized that tipped him off. Slade had heard Dick Grayson's heartbeat close to his own every day for a year. And before that he had known it in a less intimate sense as well. He was nearly certain he'd be able to pick it out of a group.

His eye confirmed what his mind already knew as he took in Dick Grayson not in his Nightwing suit, but in plainclothes. Two other heartbeats confirmed that they were not alone but he didn't belie he knew that yet. What was this about? Suddenly, it was not about protecting Dick. Now he was just curious. "What happened to call or text if you needed to tell me something, little bird?" He asked as he approached, eye on Dick even as he tried to pinpoint where the other bodies were.

Jason: He and Tim were to stay out of sight unless it became clear that Dick couldn’t handle himself. The toxin that Tim had mixed up was supposed to knock him out, but there was always a chance that Deathstroke wouldn’t go down as fast as they were anticipating or that somehow it wouldn’t work as intended. Still, Jason was up high in the ceiling until then, just close enough to where Dick was standing to have both a clear visual and the right distance for the dart to really stick.

Dick: The warehouse had a table and chair, but Dick knew he wouldn't be able to stay sitting. He was leaning against the table instead, the suitcase behind him, and when Slade walked in he tried not to show any outer signs of the tension he was carrying. He didn't want him to know Jason and Tim were also here. The fact that he was meeting up with him alone was only suspicious if he acted terse and professional, as if he were trying to hide something.

So he remained relaxed, not even reacting to the nickname he was sure would come up later. Jason and Tim might not be able to hear from their vantage points, but Babs heard everything. "I couldn't do this over the phone," he said simply. "And I wasn't sure if you would meet me. Besides, I guess it's always nice to know how much my life is worth." Dick had checked his phone plenty of times that day. Slade never bothered to warn him that someone had a contract on his head. It should come as no surprise, but it was a thought he couldn't shake even as he unzipped the suitcase to show the money inside. "Count it, if you want."

Slade: Slade didn’t take that bait. There was something going on here. “What’s this about, Dick? Did you miss me?” Was that why he was trying to get Slade to take a kill contract out on him? He might be the only one in the world who understood that, given that he had done the same thing to Rose not too long ago. Only he had taken out the hit.

“I haven’t agreed to the job yet,” he said simply. “Call me even showing up here curiosity.” It wasn’t that, but he wasn’t telling Dick that he had come here to possibly dispatch the moron trying to hire him. The moron was Dick. Go figure.

Dick: Something flickered across Dick's expression, but it was brief and he pushed past it. Instead of forcing apathy, he used the moment to turn away from the suitcase so he was facing Slade instead. He didn't answer the question. "I'm offering you a different job. Take the money. If you need more, I'll get more. Let me buy out whatever contract you have in Star City." As he spoke he moved closer, but was sure to keep his hands down by his sides. The way he was dressed made it nearly impossible to be hiding any weapons, unless he had a gun strapped to his calf. "I know you're lying about why you're here. I don't want to fight you, Slade. Just... take the out. For old time's sake."

Slade: Old time’s sake. Slade narrowed his eyes under his mask. Honestly... if Dick had the money, it was a valid way to get out. No hit to his reputation because Slade had never indicated that he couldn’t be bought out. Money was the point of the business. He had nothing against Kara. Why should he? He had wanted the 60 million. It was the only reason he had bothered to take on a Kryptonian. That and the desperation for any kind of challenge. Otherwise... there was nothing.

And... Dick had that annoying way about him. He still remembered how Dick had looked into his eye ten years ago and with every speck of earnestness asked Deathstroke to change... just because Dick wanted him to. It had struck him so deeply then. It still struck him now.

He could refuse it. After all, he hadn’t confirmed that he had a job at all, even if Dick was right. But there was no reason. Not beyond the consideration that there were two other people waiting here. Was Dick making a play?

Moving into Dick’s space, he cocked his head. “The buyout’s 60 million, little bird. And if I take it, I have your word that I’ll walk out of here? No questions asked?”

Dick: Even after finding out he'd been lied to and the fallout that happened afterward, Dick never felt afraid in Slade's presence. He wasn't in costume and he had no real defense against him, not physically, but he knew Slade wasn't going to kill him. What he believed years ago might not be true, but there was some reason Slade chose to let him live. Perhaps it was because he assumed Dick would be malleable enough to believe the lie he'd given him on the rooftop. Maybe he thought there was still something he could get from him.

"Take it, leave Star City for good, and I won't lift a finger to stop you." His voice was quiet and direct, even though having Slade all up in his space was disarming in ways Dick hadn't experienced in many years. He took a slow breath before saying even more softly, empathetically, "Please."

Babs: She’s silent to everyone on the comm line, and even in her apartment, but she bristles at the nickname and her eyes widen when she hears the offer. Still, she says nothing. She knows Slade would hear. But she also knows exactly how Dick was an idiot when it came to impulse and the heart, and it couldn’t exactly be described as soundly logical. She wants to speak up, tell Dick to focus, but she knew it was too dangerous. She knows she had to let this play out until things really escalated, and she still prayed they didn’t. Jason was there. Tim was there. He wasn’t alone. She continues to listen, suddenly quite relieved she was the only one that could hear all this.

Slade: "I'll take the money," he said. "But I won't leave Star City. Not with Rose here." He really would cancel the job, but he was tired. He had been doing this for so long now that he wanted the opportunity to stop for a while. Perhaps actually buying property in the city, going straight for a while until the money began to run out... maybe he might have a chance with his kid. Billy had berated him for weeks after the hit he had taken out on Rose. She was angry. And he had made her that way. However, his increasingly more common thoughts about his legacy had been dredged up even further when he'd been vulnerable. If someone had tried to pop him then, that would have been it. He would have left behind a whole lot of money and little else to show for it.

"But if I take it, I will drop any business in Star City." When he started to work again eventually, he could have the decency to not work in Dick's city. He had done it in Bludhaven. There were plenty of other places in the world where he could make money. "I'll give you my word." If Dick knew him at all, he would know that those five words were about as strong as a legally binding contract. Stronger even. "60 million dollars and you letting me leave here to try to set up something with my kid, and I will never do business here."

He only wondered if Dick would take it.

Dick: Dick wasn't sure if Slade would agree or not and he was both shocked and relieved when he did. He stared at him for a few seconds, thinking back to the conversation they had on the roof, and even though Slade didn't specify having a contract it was clear what business he referred to. It was still a strange choice that he would want to stay in Star City, but that wasn't something he would question right now. It didn't matter. He couldn't focus on anything beyond the situation at hand.

"Okay," he finally agreed, even though he half-expected Tim or Jason to take a flying leap from the shadows. He was relieved when they didn't. This could still be handled with minimal confrontation and conflict. No one was going to get hurt. There were too many thoughts in his head as he took a step to the side so Slade could get to the suitcase. "It should all be there."

Slade: Slade didn't move toward the money, watching Dick for a long moment before reaching up to pull off his mask. He had Dick's word that he was walking out. In spite of Slade's paranoia, he trusted Dick Grayson, so he set the helmet aside and reached up to catch a hand in the other's hair. Old times' sake. Did Dick still think of old times? He had hoped the answer was no, but Slade needed to confirm it. Was the lack of distance between them right now as palpable to Dick as it was to Slade.

"I'm doing this for old times, little bird," he told him quietly, the fingers in his hair tightening. "But I hadn't realized that you thought much of those at all." Was Dick showing some kind of hand? Slade might be, but he'd deny it if pushed.

Jason: Jason had the dart gun up and ready the second he saw Slade’s hand move up to his mask. They’d spoken a lot, longer than Jason had expected to need to wait, words he couldn’t hear, but he finally had his shot. Watching Slade actually reach out and touch Dick was like a signal on top of a signal.

With all the practice he’d had, Jason was an impeccable marksman, and he had a clear shot of Slade’s neck. He took it, and the dart cleared all the open air in a matter of a couple of seconds. As soon as the tip made contact with flesh, the neurotoxin would start working its way through him.

Dick: When he realized Slade was removing the helmet, Dick turned back to him suddenly, surprised, and his eyes widened when he touched his hair. He didn't say anything, but he wouldn't have warned him even if there were time to do it. That would have meant betraying Jason and Tim. He was so shocked by the barrage of thoughts and emotions that he didn't even know how to react, or what he would have said if he had the chance to give Slade an answer.

Jason was fast. Accurate. Dick winced when the dart hit its mark, his hand flying up to the side of Slade's arm as if he expected him to topple over right there. He shook his head, even though it was much too late. "Wait!"

Tim: Tim watched Jason fire from his own vantage point, zooming in on his mask to watch the hit land. Bullseye. Perfect. Now they just had to see if the toxin he had mixed worked. He moved to lithely get himself down, landing on his feet on the floor as he waited.

Babs: She turns her mic back on as soon as the dart was released, smirking only a second later, “Contact.” she confirms to the group as a whole. She’s careful to keep her voice even, because at this moment only her and Dick knew what was said to Slade. Considering she was already working from a new monitor, she wanted to keep it that way for a while, at least. After all, she’d had years to accept this, and she couldn’t blame Tim and Jason in this case. As soon as Dick speaks, she’s quick to respond, “He’s going down… damn, Tim,” She can see even the early stages through the camera, and she can’t help but be impressed. It sure took something to knock a man like Slade out cold.

Slade: Slade felt the bite of something in his neck and reached up to close his hand around the dart. He didn't have time to really figure it out, but he wasn't a moron so when his vision went double and then triple, he met Dick's eyes. "Didn't think... you had it in you, little bird," he slurred out before he felt a heaviness in all of his limbs that had his knees buckling. Shit.

Clumsily, Slade pushed back from Dick, trying to reach for his katana. What the hell had been in that dart? He didn't have time to ask before his knees struck the floor and then he landed in a rather ungainly sprawl on the floor of the warehouse, the sword skidding as it fell from his hand. He managed a final groan before he was out.

Tim: Tim watched the toxin take effect with no small measure of pride. "Awesome shot, Jason," he said as he came out of the shadows and pulled out a set of specially crafted manacles so he could cuff the unconscious Slade. "What did he say to you, Dick?"

Jason: Jason let himself down with a cable to make up for the distance and retracted it around the same time Deathstroke went down. “That was some potent stuff, Timbers. You could make a killing with that if it can take down Deathstroke.”

As far as he was concerned, the plan had gone off without a hitch, but he’d not entirely missed Dick reached for Slade’s arm in that last second. “One assassin, as agreed.” For his part, he walked over to the katana that Slade had no doubt meant for one of them and picked it up. With his free hand, he unclipped his mask and whistled. “And a bonus for me.”

Dick: Dick turned away without saying anything, zipping up the suitcase just to have something to do with his hands. "Good job." He couldn't make himself sound as enthusiastic as Tim even though he meant it. They listened to what he'd asked and didn't rush in before they had to. It could have been a lot worse. "I told him I wanted to buy him out of the contract," he finally said quietly. "And he agreed not to do business in Star City."

Frowning, he watched Jason with the katana and then looked over at Tim. "Remember what I said about his file? He's only wanted for questioning. He could walk out of jail today and we're back where we started, only he'll have it out for us. Maybe it would be the best option, under these circumstances..."

Babs: She watches them work, though continues to check the perimeter. When Tim asks what was said, she listens carefully and simply closes her eyes a moment. They’d talk later, she knew that much. They had more work to do, now. They had Deathstroke to get to the police department,which was a huge task in and of itself. She’s quick to chime in, “Well, you know, I know a guy. He’ll keep Deathstroke in there for as long as he can.” Though her voice holds a bit of humor in it, she scowls silently in her apartment. She wished privately that this one time they could just lock him up for good, technicalities aside. Still, that wasn’t reality, and the image of Jason ogling the swords makes her snort and brings her back to the present.

“Jason, are you really going to--” she pauses, sighs, and rolls her eyes, “...nevermind. Just hurry up. I don’t like an advanced metabolism and toxins combined.” Babs thrived on predictability, and though Tim had already more than proved he was fine, she was obviously antsy to get the job done.

Tim: Tim rolled his eyes as his middle brother. "Too bad I don't supply mercenaries. That was a one and done." He had the recipe and all of the ratios figured out, though. He could absolutely recreate it.

"All you have to do is give him money?" Tim asked Dick as he spoke. That... was that ethical? Would Slade actually keep his word? He looked down at the man before shaking his head. "I don't want him to just walk... But... How much would we need?" Bruce would kill them for this, though, wouldn't he?

As he watched Jason lift the sword, he shook his head. "You can't just steal from the guy, Jay. He's already probably going to try to kill us now."

Jason: Jason seemed undeterred. “So what, you buy him out, he leaves the city, keeps taking contracts somewhere else? Don’t tell me you’re getting Batman levels of narrow and only giving a shit about one city. How’s it better if we let him walk and he goes and kills...I don’t know, the daughter of a King somewhere. Is that cool because she’s not in Star City?” Was Dick’s problem that he didn’t want to have to look at it? That was cheap.

Jason tipped the blade back to rest it across his shoulder. “Yes, I’m really going to. Finders keepers. He’s going to jail.” And...he’d been thinking about that since Dick brought it up, but not in a way he wanted any input on. He’d come to some conclusions on his own.

Dick: Even though he wanted to say no, Dick knew he hadn't gone after Slade in all the years he was out in the world, taking contracts and doing hits, and that was something he tried not to dwell on. He knew Jason was right, so he just shook his head slightly at Tim's question since it wasn't an option they would be entertaining. He knew Babs was right in that Gordon would keep him for as long as possible, but it wouldn’t take long for Slade’s lawyers to show up and unravel everything.

"Okay, let's go," he said, handing Tim the suitcase before kneeling next to Slade. "Help me with him, Jay." His mood was still strangely subdued as he replaced the scene over and over in his head, but there was nothing uncertain in his demeanor.

Tim: "I have a car outside ready to transport us to the station," Tim said as he moved to grab a leg. "This went... so much easier than I expected." He was still trying to figure out what to do about the fact that Slade would probably walk the moment his lawyers showed up.

"What are you going to tell Jim?" He asked Dick. This was bound to look like something if they hauled Deathstroke in.

Babs: “Knock on wood with that comment,” Babs says wryly, but she can’t help but agree. This went… amazingly smooth, even if she had moments to talk about. At the end of the day, Deathstroke was in custody, and no one was bleeding. That was a resounding success.

“Somehow, I think the commissioner is going to accept the fact that he gets to question him and figure it out,” once again, the amusement is clear from her tone, though it doesn’t lose any seriousness, “Don’t count on too long, but it’s something.”

Jason: Not that Tim or Dick weren’t strong, but since neither of them put quite the same emphasis on brute strength that he did, Jason shouldered the bulk of Slade’s body after he’d secured the katana (which he was keeping) and headed out.

“How long do you think he’ll be held?” he asked Dick on the way out. He wasn’t counting on having more than 24 hours, but he needed at least a few.

Dick: Once they had Slade situated in the car, Dick sighed and rubbed his head. "I'll tell Gordon I came across him while patrolling the warehouse district, remembered he was wanted for questioning, and decided to take him in. I'll tell him a vigilante helped me get him subdued. No names." He wasn't bringing Tim, Jason, or Babs into this in any capacity. “As high profile as Deathstroke is, it makes more sense for Gordon to handle the interrogation.” There was no way he was going to do it.

Hesitating, he shook his head slowly at Jason’s question. "I don’t know. Not long. Gordon might hold him on some bogus charge, but I'll say a couple hours at least. He needs to sleep this off first. How long before he wakes up, Tim?"

Tim: "Couple of hours at least. At least... by my calculations." It seemed to be functioning as planned so far. So he assumed that it would keep doing so. "What are we going to do to make sure he stays in jail? I figure that's the goal?" He shrugged. "We have a little time to figure out what to do."

Jason: Jason said nothing else until they had Slade in the waiting car and he could stand up straight. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Gordon will get enough to hold him.” And even Slade’s lawyers weren’t going to be anticipating it. “I’ve got something else to take care of if you’ve got it from here. Won’t be long.” He needed to speak with Roy and dump his gear. All told, he could get to the station within the two-ish hour window.

Babs: She was quiet as they got Slade into the car. She listened, but she mainly thought quite a bit. Her mind was already preoccupied, and add on the things she heard in the conversation, she was worried. Still, more talk of her dad snaps her back to the present moment. She appreciates Jason’s vote of confidence, though doesn’t know where it’s coming from exactly. Still, she respected his privacy, and figured that getting him to go into detail wasn’t going to happen. “Call if you need anything,” she reminds him, “I have the cameras ready to go back on as soon as you all leave the area. The car being seen will be enough to back up your story. Nice work, everyone.”

Dick: “Thanks, Oracle.” Dick blinked when Jason said that and just stared at him. "Do you have something you think might incriminate him?" Or maybe Jason was going to get an eyewitness? That was possible, but he'd been right there with Slade that night. Maybe not at his side, but still. The thought made him wary. "We got it from here. Don't come to the station, Jay. They're looking for you, too, you know."

Tim: Tim looked down at Slade before nodding. "We can handle it, Jason," he agreed. "We don't want you in a jail cell too." He didn't know what Jason was planning, but he seemed to be acting shifty. What was going on? "What are you planning?"

Jason: “Don’t worry about it. See you guys later. Red Hood out.” With that, he cut his mic and silenced the three of them in his ear. He’d get Alfred to feed his dog. It’d be alright. Jason threw up one hand in a dismissive kind of goodbye and headed the opposite way, taking his phone out of his pocket as he did.

Dick: Frowning, Dick started to call after Jason to push for a concrete answer, but he already knew they weren't going to get anywhere. He slipped into the driver's seat and held his hand out for the keys. "Let's go. I don't want to take any chances of him waking up."

#dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #slade wilson #barbara gordon #c: discord

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axelisrose · 4 years

Text

1. ACTVARIVM

Sunlit greenery surrounded a plain white house. The strong iron fence protecting it now was gone unlike the faint sweet scent of the blooming flowers. They appeared as peculiar colourful dots in-between the harsh black marks on the grass. Burning memories drifted here and there and eventually led to the innocent building standing in the very same place where once the old World Military housed. Replaced by new change and forced into the present. Just like that. The cold breeze on this summer day seemed unlikely to be able to refresh the joy of those wandering the disastrous field. Like ghosts, haunting for passed friends or family and loved ones. Closed eyes and the sharp sense of ears will hear the whispers of battle cries whilst smelling and breathing in their remnants of ash. None could voice their anger of frustration by merely screaming dead names aloud into the world anymore. It was eerie for the young children watching their parents walk around aimlessly as they were told to wait by the entrance gate. Their big, curious eyes followed the tall humans and witnessed how tears were shed, knees dropped into mud, and a door knocked on.

-"...Yes?", a muffled voice eagerly answered, carrying a polite and formal sound.

-"My name is Atrox, the one in charge of the government of Lux-", footsteps forward after the chair was driven back, then the door was opened in a flash.

-"Mr. Atrox!", a figure with black hair slightly cutting into golden eyes, dressed in a dark cloak surprised the superior man with a short shock. He did not anticipate such a child-like person to be the new leader of the World Military, or at least what was left of it.

-"You must be Walt- No, pardon me, shall I refer to you as Renwick or Cherrywine?"

A moment of naught but silence. As his pinkish eyelids seemed to close entirely from tiredness, they jumped back open as he spoke:"You may refer to me as Renwick, please."

Atrox was older than the average middle-aged man at his workplace. A child may have a slip of the tongue when walking past, seeing him without his uniform and call him 'Grandpa'.

-"Mr. Renwick.", he felt odd addressing someone so young so formally,"I can guess that you know why I'm here. Do you mind me coming in?"

-"I do think it'd make for a better environment to tell you this story, rather than just standing here by the door and having even children look at us.", Walter widened his eyes to scare them as Atrox had a look for himself, then returned his sight to his subordinate to find a face just as he left it.

He let him and entered as well the interior of the house. Such an odd feeling; so uncharmingly blissful. It was decorated nicely one might say, when ignoring the tossed books laying scattered across the pale wooden floor. It felt like a doll house on a military cementary. Such was the image in Atrox' mind. He tried to forget about the provocative thought, only to think about it more after being reminded of the dark deeds he had done. Taking and losing lives were truly two sides of the same coin. But he was too old for regret. "So-", Walter's words pulled him out of his miserable trance, thankfully. Atrox quickly pulled out a voice recorder in response. With the help of a push filled with dread it started recording. As Walter had sat down on the beige couch, he emptied the seat and welcomed his guest to sit next to him and that was when Atrox realized he should not underestimate this teenager. The common smell of coffee was something anyone would have noticed when taking the first few steps into this house. A slight rise of caution emerged when seeing him hold two cups of warm coffee. Unlike the beverage itself, it was not so common to make something appear out of thin air but Atrox had been warned beforehand, thence he welcomed the offer and sat down. After all, he had not been chosen to be the leader of the government for nothing. The price for this rank was a regretful past.

-"Please tell me first how and why this happened, Mr.Renwick."

-"Of course. The initiator was myself.", Walter surpressed his smirk.

-"The cause of death of over seven hundred soldiers was initiated by you?"

-"Yes, Sir."

-"You're now in charge of the very organisation you almost had all of its members killed?"

-"Precisely", he answered the deep gaze of his superior with his golden eyes, then he followed the military suit to its right sleeve, went further down and found a shaking hand, tightening the grip around the recorder to control the internal distress and prevent something ugly. "Sir..?"-

-"Why did you cause this, Mr.Renwick?", his tone changed, attaining a more concerned voice.

"It was truly alike to a play of tragedy, Mr. Atrox. My sincerest condolences, I have heared you lost both of your sons during this small war. That is why, I believe you must hear about it in its entirety. Shall I begin?"

"Pl- Please do so."

"The goals of the other parties actually differed from mine, but the shared destination is whence our lust for the ambush was born.

I suppose I should tell you about this kid, named Satanael Leo Roseblood. He has the Devil's Will which made everyone come to this occasion in the first place. Essentially, this was a race between the greed of many to make the world their own. To access the Axis Mundi, overcome God and making the world truly your own, you're in need of something equally strong as God's Will, and that little thing was inside Leo. His reason for coming was to free a man named Charles Blackwood from the World Military's prison whose nephew, Ray Blackwood, also came for the exact same purpose. Both neither knew of each others' presence however. A variety of small bounty-hunter parties joined this hunt as well and amongst them was the white soldier- or should I call her ice-cold killer, ha? Leigh, Leigh Godsent is her name and she was there to take on Leo herself, accompanied by her guardian, a strong man, Bruce and by myself. They were under my protection until I realised my goal: taking over this organisation. It was a fight amongst the wildest of animals during a night of heavy rain as well as falling bodies. Oh, I almost forgot, pardon me, another party arrived rather late to the commotion: the Layla-Tribe. I know, but even I was astonished by the fact the news of the battle had reached the southern lands. I spread word by simply shouting and telling on my way home from 'a meeting'. Honestly, to think rumors spread as fast as I've read about them in stories is ironic.. and cliché. Their ambition, I do not know as after I've accomplished my feat, I turned ignorant towards the battle and its fighters.

The house was filled with its usual staff and soldiers on this night. A calm rain and moon presented the scenery pleasantly. Unknown security established in the minds of those living their everyday life. A knock interrupted this comfort of silence. "Daniel..?", the door opened with a noise so small, it did not reverberate and entering his office was a woman of the secretary staff. Someone who had developed feelings for Daniel who returned those with joy. "Lizzy, don't call me by my first name while you're still out there in the hallway.", he got up from his desk. They hugged and kissed. "Is this the night they will try to attack us?", she asked, grabbing both of his arms. "No need to worry, though. Their only objective is someone amongst the intruders, so we'll have them trapped in the entrance. While they're fighting each other we'll either capture or kill them with our arms. Even bullets will be mortal while they're focused on someone equally strong as them."

-"Will we be safe-", her petite voice was stifled by a tighter hug and a vibrating floor.

Daniel knew the odds were against him. A king being cornered by all the other enemy pieces on this board. The times when a lie shined more beautiful than a missed oportunity to secure a safe reality- regret.

A white rose glowed by the shine of the moon. Grey spots staining it as the raindrops fell onto the petals. It stood upright however, not giving in to the weight of the pressure.

-"Lizzy, after this, I'll quit. I'll quit this and we'll live together in a wonderful white house, surrounded by a green meadow, what do you say? This was the dream you told me about the other day, right?"

"Mr. Cherrywine!"-

The woman escaped the warm arms and withdrew into the cold emptiness.

-"They're here, am I right?", Daniel's tone of voice filled with rising maturity.

-"Sir, shall we proceed with our current plan or do-"

-"Tonight, soldier. Tonight is the one time you may all act as you will."

-"Sir?", a lost voice, deep within darkness, alike a child asking his parent for approval.

-"Go, now. Defend this house to your dying breath! Carry on this spirit to the others! Fight!"

"Sir!", Daniel watched the man's back turn, slowly but surely passing through the same door he entered the only safe room left with. Someone who would not return, ever. Only his footsteps echoed through the hallway back into the office right into Daniel's consciousness. Lizzy stared into his teary eyes, his slightly twitching jaw and his lying mouth. She approached him again, this time with a caring gentleness, however she did not understand just why his emotional state changed so suddenly but caressed him nonetheless.

"It would seem we are not the first ones to arrive.", I said.

"Izzat good, or bad?", Bruce asked.

"Obviously good.", Leigh responded.

Next to the country road there was a white facility, in the middle of a wide garden, which was the headquarters of the World Military. Usually belted by a rectangular-shaped iron fence and now those missing parts were going to help other parties to intrude. The three made their way into the front yard which was not bombarded to naught like those parts of the now useless fence. Danger approached security. On the way to their mischief the scent of innocent nature followed their soon to be bloody hands. The mother tried to stop their children from committing sin, yet failed to do so. The child had attained its own body, mind, and Will.

Changing from the calm sound of shaking leaves and trees and the cold but soothing wind, gunshots had already been fired in the entrance hall which benefitted Walter's thought of idea. After hearing the commotion start and finally taking off he told Bruce to stay with him to infiltrate this house.

-"Leigh, you go to the right side and enter from there.", he pointed with the tip of his finger to the fourth floor while his voice was being shaken after every two words from jogging steps.

-"Huh? Are you blind? There ain't no entrance."

-"Why yes, there is actually."

-"No. Jumping in through the window and I'll attract everyone's attention and then I'm fucked."

-"You won't be. Bruce, there is someone already up there, am I correct?"

-"As a matter of fact, he is right, Leigh.", Bruce was able to locate various positions of people if he desired so. Being an observer led him to hold onto this exclusive right, yet robbed him of his ability to partake in conflicts of Will such as the ongoing one in the entrance hall of the World Military.

-"Who?", she suddenly seemed interested. Her breath was not exhausted, not at all but energetic.

-"Haha, Leigh! It's ya old fella! What's his name again?", Bruce showed enthusiasm for the idea.

-"Leo?"

-"What do you say, girl? There is an entrance on the right, yes?"

She smiled. Her body accelerated, she was in the middle of the two and now had her nose in front of them as bits of pieces of flimsy, enlightened particles slowly came together and joined around her body helically, they lit up with increased regularity until she finally jumped through shaking might towards the right side of the facility and landed in a matter of mere seconds. Her hair, white and fanned out, carried by a gentle atmosphere by moonlight.

-"Amazing.", Bruce said plainly astonished.

-"For her age, that is true. But watch now."

While the two men were running still toward the entrence, having their heads turned to watch Leigh, almost having reached their destination, their sight was blocked by a tree and all they could see was how the greenery was shortly illuminated by a flashing lightning which helped Leigh achieve great height she was in need of in order to reach the destined window on the fourth floor. And by the help of resounding smashed glass both of them were left reassured as their desired entrance neared and grew in size. Walter stood with his back on the left wall next to the entrance door and so did Bruce on the right. The two were being parted by two massive glass doors which incurred small, young scratches and bruises. One peek and one would see brutal warfare. The interior orange lighting crawled over the floor to flee and reached out to the door and faded into the outside, not meeting the shaded shoes of the two.

-"Find a person named-"

*Gunshots*

"Huh, what?"-

-"Daniel Che-"

*Person dying by firearm, exclaiming death cry*

"Cherrywine, right? The leader of-"-

-"Precisely! Locate him!"

*The glass doors burst into thousands of shards*

"Found him! I know where-"-

-"Perfect!"

"Hey there's two kids up there!"

"A boy and a girl?! Why the hell are kids here?!"

"They same from the park in Pandemonium, even!"

"Keep your eyes on the- Argh! Fuck!"

"Damnit, You there! Have your squad handle the children! Go! Go! Go!"

"Yes, Sir!"

Those shouted words travelled their way through the hall by the same air that could be listened to by the outsiders. Walter and Bruce nodded in agreement and charged in themselves after having turned invisible by Walter's doing. Altough maintaining such casual charisma for the younger, Bruce was again amazed by the carefree attitude internally. Words exchanged were only audible by the other- perfectly thought of for secret infiltrating. They ran. Running amongst a disgustingly high quantity of nameless bodies, dropped dusty weapons in the fawn-coloured entrance hallway to advance forth to the stairs leading to the upper floors. The images were shaky and flashing because of the hurry but seen hidden behind a wall, there was someone dressed rather fancy for an occasion such as this. A blonde protected by four men, also in suits-

"We're the fucking Blackwoods, alright?!"

The boy's eyes favoured green sapphires, lighting up, he pushed the two men next to him aside, his upbeat, blonde hair bounced carefully as he the took the small but promising steps outside of the brittle but protecting wall, escaping the extended grasping arms wanting to hold back their young leader he stood there, out in the open, thenceforth having amounts of military and third-party rifles pointing on and their courageous, blind anger aimed for him; his pupils widened. Walter's drifted towards the left, capturing the essence of the scene of a boy's stand before a rain of bullets ended his young life. Walter and Bruce were right next to him, in the middle of the hall and to evade potential death here Walter wanted to shift the storm of bullets behind them but he was unable to proceed so, as the blonde pointed his right index finger up in the air, his tips of blonde hair were slowly eaten by a pitch black. The bullets flew with incredible speed after having been unleashed by provoked ignorance. Ray Blackwood willed fire, shaped alike sharp, giant roses, enough to protect him and his team, with rushing flames swallowing the lead as it continuously reached for the soldiers on the higher level, clearing the hall of other gang members as they realized the offered opportunity to climb up in the enemy's castle and rushed towards the freed stairway just as Walter and Bruce did. At the time, in conjunction with the beard stubbles around his mouth, his lips formed and pinned a smile on Walter's face during the witness of the fire's spectacle. Alongside the smell of dead bodies, technically spread gunpowder, the reek of blood there now joined too an ashy scent which also stained the beige walls with clouds of grey. Little crisping fires spread and burned on the floor, inflaming the golden carpet, acting like the starting signal for the blonde to take off the black mantle. The floor was trembling due to the drumming feet of the enraged. His men followed the back covered in a black tank top with war cries enacting a picture of five gang members chasing after a hord of about one hundred bounty hunters chasing after the entire staff of soldiers of the World Military- A hunt.

"Why did you stop? Mr. Renwick?"

Walter tried to cover his overtaking smile with a weak left hand which then landed in his lap as he began to hold back his snicker, exposing his mouth area which lacked any beard growth.

-"Please do excuse me, Mr. Atrox. I was just thinking... This one kid, Ray Blackwood."

-"Positions of both Blackwoods as well as everyone elses besides yourself are unknown, yes?"

-"That is correct. Everyone who was involved in that night and was featured on the wanted list, is somewhere unknown. However, that was not the reason for my laughter, excuse me, please."

-"Then what reason did you laugh for?", Atrox became nervous and impatient. His grip around the sweaty recorder tightened again, yet not as tight as it became after Walter's response:

-"I was just thinking about how Ray Blackwood could, if he so desired, infiltrate even your facility. Even without me acting as an initiator, believe my words as I saw his flames in person and do allow me to share this with you: Orange isn't the brightest colour his fire can rage into."

The sight was cut rather short because of the insufficiency of lighting when she first had entered the building. Plus, she could not rely on someone else to handle small stuff like this like Walter could in the hallway, thus she had to use her own Will to enable herself to a greater vision. As she rushed with fast but faint steps forward small particles of lightning appeared and disappeared, appeared and disappeared to reduce the amount of pain she had to endure before actual combat. The light was minimal, yes but it served its purpose perfectly when Leigh noticed she was running down a narrow hallway on the fouth floor. Without worrying about herself, she progressed, she ran, she followed the same stenching smell of blood she scented when she fought Leo in the park. Her hand placed quickly on the sheath of her sword, her shoes cried aloud when she abruptly decelerated once she saw a slender frame of body standing with its back to her. The light was fading but before it went out and a new one arrived she saw a pale figure which featured a petite back where three long, sharp and thin scars running down the whole dorsum with spine-length, long, saggy brunette hair and oddly enough feminine curves.

-"What-", her clueless muttering was immediately topped by another astonishment in the very next second.

She evaded the daunting atmosphere radiating from the strange body, drifted backwards as the white strands of her wavy, long hair split her vision into many more little windows to peek through and her nose filled with the nauseous stench of blood she did not miss but was sadly too familiar with. Left to right and right to left it was corpses, however not as whole but slashed, brutally, they had become one with the walls and floor, without any mercy, their interiors seemed to fade into the elements of the components of the facility. Organs leaking their dried blood, spreading it onto the surfaces leaving a bitter aftertaste for Leigh's eyesight behind which evoked sheer disgust inside her prior-resolved consciousness. Yet, averting the sight of the late, focusing on the living, specifically the only other living being in the present in this dark hallway beside her, she drew her sword. It cried, alike ready to take life when it left it's shelter. The white blade was shining at regular intervals, made by the particals of her lightning manipulation, which shortened steadiliy as she pointed the edge of the blade towards the naked back, making it glow eternally.

-"This time, Leo. I'll cut your back open and make you cry.", altough whispering a careful but threatening tone the hallway made her words clearly audible to her enemy whose left scapula deformed, the cracks of bones, into a slowly twirling circle which was ready to unleash a beastly crawl towards its enemy only to paint another massacre of corpse:

-"Shh, hush or you'll bite your tongue.", his head turned slightly towards the girl. His tilted chin accentuated by blue light.

For a second she didn't know what had occured to her in a matter of mere five seconds and how those resulted in her falling out of the window, ready to greet the ground with her very face. Her vison was tossed, it seemed like up was down, down was up, left became right and right became left as her body was pushed and thrown towards the point she had entered the hallway in. On the brink of losing self control it was a small but impactful push forward it that made her fail falling into the depth of darkness. Reverting time was her Will, the only thing she wanted was to stand before her-

-"Leoooo!", the name echoed from a swollen throat back into the building's interior reaching its namebearer in a slight shock of surprise.

And there she was, in mid-air in the middle of his clear field of vision after having turned around completely to be welcomed by a girl encased in a glowing, blue aura, her widely opened, golden eyes told her a sad story reflecting the image of a broken boy.

Was it sadness her anger evolved into?

Was is regret her strike, already in action, was turning into?

She wanted it to stop, make the strike undone and forget this encounter, but even so, her action had already moved faster than her begging, twitching scream that was being thrown into the other, monotone face. The sword cut deep into the boy's left shoulder, driving its blade through muscle and bone, skin and cell, deforming and ripping apart what was once harmonic. Her feet met the floor safely, tiptoeing forwards making soft steps, her dizzy body fell into his arms, her head rested on his left shoulder. Both were enveloped in darkness' silence and tranquility whose small bubble of saftey and comfort were pierced by blinding lights. Leigh's eyes jumped back up just when she allowed herself to let her guard down, forget and drown into the warmth. A swarm of small military squads were rushing towards them. She could feel the danger in her stomach; the anxiety made her blood pressure rose to an unhealthy extent but she made no move; her lightning had long vanished. Only small bits of laughter unchained her from paralyzation. Leigh's pupils grew affixed to the sight of lines exploding out of their back's encasement, stretching and finally impaling every single soldier who dared to enter this hallway without giving any regard to their prior actions, hence suffering the lethal, equally unjustified, consequences. They were smashed down onto the floor to enable them to join their late comrades. She couldn't refrain from sharing a tear or two and bit into the shoulder to repress a scream of hopelessness and her quiet weeping; it was yet again too much for her to bear but ready to break down, having even averted vision, her ears caught the crawling sound of enraging words:

-"I thought you came to kill me..", thus causing something deep inside her tainted mind to allow her become free.

-"Yeah. You're right..", she whispered back.

Pushing and rejecting the warm body away from her, she ripped the sword out of his bleeding body and held it tightly in her right; creating afterimages she ran up with such excellent speed and reignited anger, turning her slender motion into a heavy slash. He evaded, as expected, thence her last afterimage before the inital blow had also striked without making Leo taking notice. The open wound was of much help to him as forms of blood outgrew and stopped the strike effortless. She aimed for and punched into his stomach, making the afterimages disappear and getting the lower part of her right arm sucked into Leo's body, making it stuck. Her shock was quickly calmed but not prepared for following: A acrobatic transition of the upper and lower body happened before her; she could feel the creeping fluidity of the stream of blood forbidding her arm freedom. Falling into distress an idea rose from small moment of clarity. "Ha!" She rammed her free, electrified left arm into the body of blood as she herself was hit by a foot with such might, it smashed her into the wall next to the corpses.

-"Fuck. Fuck, ahh.", she bit her tongue and spit out blood. Her throat felt poisoned, such was the feeling, it made her think if her right arm had been injected with something toxic.

Remaining on her knees after having tried to stand up but failing due to increasing dizziness, he picked up her sword and threw it over to her which was first caught by her weak hands, afterward, the floor itself. New members came running into the hallway with shouts, cries, weapons and lights and were in a moment of mental aberration since the hallway had lost original strucure and acquired new shape in the form of a white, spacious room. A snap. The sword no longer lied on the floor, lightning jumped from one to another, striking down man after man. Whomever would spectate this act would blurr the sound of bullets but become accustomed to the sight of a berseker, one girl fallen into a killing frenzy, guided by hatred or frustration.

"Unable to kill one strong, so she turned to kill a few weak."

The blade took singular body parts which she used immorally as makeshift weapons to shove them into the living faces. The blood of your own friends was tossed into your eyes. Adult men were screaming as if still in kindergarten, as if having to go home, leaving behind and parting with your playmates for the day, except now it was for ever. Exclamations were cut short by halving throats in one-sided anguish. Ten, no twenty, thirty, they kept coming, they kept dying.

-"Alike a flash appearing before your chest allowing you to draw your last breath."

-"Were you able see her in action? I thought you were elsewhere at that time?"

-"Yes, I was indeed but I did get the chance to see her in action as she was my trainee before the execution of this operation.", Walter smiled casually.

-"Hm.", Atrox gave in to the statement without rebuttal,"Continue, then, please."

-"Of course.", he leaned back after having a sip of warm coffee.

The hord of madmen were yelling their way up, mercilessly losing and taking lives as they climbed and climbed up the stairway, grasped by the thought of world control. Pushing each other as well as military soldiers off the stairs, their minds were not functioning rationally no longer and at the very front of the heated mob were the Blackwoods, Bruce and Walter. Together, however, as if on command whilst running, their heads turned left, towards the passing lower story and metamorphosing structure. Agitated by the loss of stability of the weakening stairway they all accelerated and started running to their heart's content towards the promising destination. The collective stemping grew even louder than the mindless shouting of war cries and last confessions.

-"Walter is this your messed up witchcraft!?"

"Thank you kindly, but this isn't my accomplishment!"-

-"Whose is it then?"

"I'm not sure and how would I know for certain, but I will guess it's our Devil"-

"More importantly, is the target still on the top floor?"-

-"Man, it's seems like the top part hasn't been affected..yet."

We were running right behind the Blackwoods, too, still invisible however:

-"Ray!"

"It's alright, I'm fine as long as they believe so."

"Don't push yourself, too hard, Ray. You're already a better leader than your father."-

"I'm sorry...even after losing one of us you're still so.. goddammit!"

-"We're here to rescue Charles and no matter what it tak-"

-"Man, shut it and look over there.", he pointed towards the nearing wall, and shrinking width of the stairs, which was about to push everybody off and make them fall into their death, deep down into the abyss, the ground floor.

-"Ahh! Walter!"

"That's Satanael, I'm certain now, though he is not my current objective."-

-"Yeah, well but we're about to gon' get pushed off!"

"Oh, how very tragic..."-

"Juuuuuuump!"

Soldiers, gang members, assassins; all were willing to let themsleves get rescued due to an emerging ground floor whose height grew steadily without harmonic unrest, re-enacting the image of an elevator, by jumping to the left. Marble grinding upwardly on marble, screeching its deconstruction. A great quantity fell off when landing, therefore were screamed after but those painful screams were swiftly healed by the size of the rising chunks of the ground floor. They were seperated now, all on different levels of height. Once the 'elevator' passed the remains of the stairway, they started merging into one, barely getting crushed by the sudden fusion a lot of people were left with even less space to take a stand on.

Walls were cracking, returning to their singular elemental components, the house was truly coming down and reforming. Space and room were played with to one's own advantage.

-"Ray, You alright?"

"It'd be a damn shame if I wasn't!"

"Is your uncle still on the top floor?!"-

"Yeah, Shanna still can locate his presence up there."

-"Then, protect the blonde! Surround him and finish the military's dogs!"

"The introduction part is finally down, baby! Now it's our turn to take over! Let's fucking go!"

End of ACTVARIVM

#rosenschnee #book blog #original work #story #axelisrose

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its-jwang2017 · 5 years

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Part 4: In My Feelings - Mark Tuan Edition

“Good evening everyone. Happy Friday! The time is now 7:00 pm and we will begin with the daily announcements.

It has now officially been a week since Project J and Dark Soul seized command of the Chicagoland area. With their cunning skills and extraordinary foresight, our supreme leaders were finally able to deceive and eviscerate the menace that was Red Dragon. As per their orders, all facilities that were previously run by the incapable city government will henceforth be seized and shut down as our overlords remake the city into something that we can all be proud of. Schools will be shut down in order for the new curriculum to be set up. The boundaries of the city are still closed off and guarded by the robots, built and created by the genius Project J. This technological protege is continuing to uphold the outside communication ban, but has been merciful enough to grant us the ability to keep our Chicago radio stations and news broadcast so that we may keep up to date on the whereabouts, new policies, and warnings from our saviors. In turn, Dark Soul has also provided us with the working electricity we need to power everything from water purification systems to charging our phones. For these things, and many others, we thank our new leaders.

In other news, people are advised to stay inside for their own protection as Dark Soul and Project J supporters seize various properties. These groups will soon become the protectors, leaders, and givers of the communities they possess, as promised. Soon enough, the city that was once a corrupt mass of incompitent city officials will become a new utopia that all Chicagoans can enjoy equally.

There have bee-”

Mark Tuan sighed and turned the TV off, slumping even further down into the soft, well-worn beige couch. He threw the remote carelessly to the side, not even blinking as the remote came apart (again), sending the protective cap and batteries flying in all directions. He grabbed his hood and flipped it over his face, pulling the strings until all you could see was his nose peeking out from inside the bright orange hoodie. Collapsing sideways onto the couch, Mark let himself sprawl out completely as he let himself regret his most recent life choices.

Mark blindly reached behind himself, searching for the comfortable “stress-blanket” that he and Jackson bought on a whim years before. The blanket was made of a fleece-like, pale blue material and had a cute, cartoon-ish koala bear eating bamboo on it with big, soft pink bubble letters underneath exclaiming “You’re more than koala-fied!”. Jackson said the blanket made him feel validated from the instant he saw it. Mark just agreed because he thought the Koala looked sort of cute.

Once his hand felt the familiar material, wedged inside of the couch, he gave a strong tug and freed the blanket from in between the cushions. He immediately covered his entire body by curling up into a ball underneath and finally let out a yell of frustration he had been pushing down for the past couple of days. Holding his knees against his chest, Mark started to think about the repercussions of his “heat of the moment” decision to let the villains have control of the city.

In all honesty, he expected his plan to go a hell of a lot better. Mark always had a weird, niggling feeling in his gut every time he fought against his “arch-rivals”. During every battle, Mark always noticed that they fought in areas away from crowded parts of the city, like over the water or in large parks. There were usually very little casualties or injuries to civilians, and even when the villains kidnapped Jackson, it was never done maliciously or with the intent to harm. At first, Mark attributed that to his own superhero abilities, using his power responsibly in a way that protected the civilians and his best friend from all harm. But if he thought about it, it was usually the villains who chose the battleground and Mark would just meet their challenge head on, no matter the location. The latest battle went against the norm, which Mark noticed a little while later than he should of, and his gut instinctively told him something was off about the entire thing.

While he was “trapped”in the Planetarium, Mark had some time to think about what all of these collected data points meant. Even while Project J was threatening to obliterate the hero, Mark thought it still felt… wrong somehow. Project J and Dark Soul had to have known that by telling Mark their plan, they were giving Mark enough time to escape. After a cursory glance to his surroundings, he noticed that there was literally nothing keeping him trapped in the place. Project J’s bots were probably nearby, but Mark’s fire had melted them once before and he knew he could do it again if he wanted to.

At that moment, Mark decided to try his riskiest plan yet. He was tired of fighting, tired of going home with bruises and lacerations. The villains never seemed to take it easy on him, and he was tired of being the punching bag all the time. He was especially done with seeing Jackson kidnapped every week. Jackson was his best friend, his bro for life, and even though he had never really been hurt before, the image of Jackson’s bruised and bloody face would be an image Mark would be seeing every time he closed his eyes. He wouldn’t let his friend be hurt any more because of him, even if it might not have been intentional.

He had logical reasoning on his side, too; If the villains were truly evil, and if they had no hero to stop them, they would do what they have always claimed to do and mercilessly take over the city for power and wealth. If this was the case, Mark’s “sudden death” could be reversed, and he’d take them down once and for all. He’d finally put a stop to everything.

But something in his gut told him that this wouldn’t be the case.

So he made a quick decision, pretended to be dead, and had a tearful reunion with his best friend, filling Jackson in on all of the details. Mark could tell Jackson didn’t fully agree with him, still scarred with the front-row view of Mark’s death at the hands of the villains, but he gave his support nonetheless and didn’t argue with Mark’s reasoning.

Now, a week later, Mark wish Jackson would have smacked some sense into him.

Usually, at this time of day, the two friends could be found either celebrating Jackson’s latest win or out exploring the city. Ever since the villains took over the city, however, JYP International Prep decided it was in the students’ best interest to remain indoors in their dorms until it was deemed” safe to leave”. All classes, extracurriculars and athletics were canceled along with every other school in the area, for an undetermined amount of time. It had only taken three days for the two boys to become bored out of their minds.

In the beginning, they hung out with their floor mates and tried to pass the time by playing games, throwing parties, or even cleaning. Since outside communications were banned, cell phones stopped working and access to social media was denied. The students could still send messages to one another but not to anyone outside the Chicagoland area. In a fit of boredom, each student tried their best to prank call one another. That didn’t last long.

After the third day, students began to give up on finding any kind of stimulating activity to partake in and started staying in their rooms more and more often.

Which leads us to today. The seventh day.

Jackson Wang and Mark Tuan were roommates their freshman year at JYP International, and have kept up the tradition ever since. With two high-ride beds on opposite walls, a single window on the far end, dresser drawers under each bed and a desk located at the foot of each bed, their room looked like a typical dorm room that you could find at any American school. That’s where the resemblance ends, however, as the two roommates were anything but ordinary. With Mark coming from a wealthy family, he had the money and the resources to make their room as unique as possible. For starters, a flatscreen TV was hung up right over the doorway of their room, with video game consoles connected to the media center placed haphazardly in the corner of their room. Their room was one of the few that were located on the third floor of the dorm, which gave them extra ceiling height and access to the roof through their window.

Mark’s side of the room was filled with different musical artists he admired as well as a few newspaper clippings of the funnier rescues he’s had to do with Jackson (the picture of Jackson covered in glue and feathers with Mark in full costume holding Jackson in a bridal carry was probably Mark’s favorite). His closet consisted of his favorite clothing items, ranging from Target to designer, all ordered and put away nicely.

Jackson’s side of the room was more vibrant than Mark’s minimalistic, neat style. He hung up pictures of cars, artists, Pokemon cards he somehow always found, movie ticket stubs, flyers of events he participated in, polaroids of his friends and family, and anything else that he deemed “important”. His bed contained multiple plushies, all gifts from his “friends”, and about four different kinds of pillows from when he couldn’t decide which one was fluffier (then subsequently forgot to return when he found his answer). His desk proudly displayed the multiple trophies, ribbons, and prizes he had won in various fencing competitions, with homework and other papers caught up in the fray. His closet contained a lot more workout-type materials than Mark’s as well as a box of snapbacks during his “wild-and-sexy” phase.

They had enough in their rooms to have been theoretically entertained for weeks. But Mark, being an enhanced being, could feel himself starting to become stir crazy. Using his powers usually helped him work off the excess energy his body created, but since no one was allowed outside and Red Dragon was dead, Mark had no way to relieve his energy. All he could do was watch TV and see how miserably his plan has been going so far.

Jackson tried to help cheer him up at the beginning, forcing him to walk around and join him in various activities with his friends. But Jackson’s personality also demanded that he help others and alleviate their concerns about the takeover as well. So instead of getting Jackson all to himself, Mark had to share him with all of the other students in their dorm as Jackson did his best to provide a positive atmosphere in the otherwise dreary city.

The rational part of Mark’s brain was overwhelmingly proud to be called Jackson’s best friend; only a true-hearted, kind person would be able to put other’s well-being in front of their own to provide some semblance of normalcy as the world around them fell apart. Mark was grateful for Jackson’s unwavering support, never making him feel guilty or demanding he step up as they watched the city descend into hell. Mark knew that Jackson trusted him unconditionally and his loyalty meant more to Mark than anything else in the universe.

However, Mark was human. Meaning he was also extremely jealous and angry that Jackson’s time wasn’t fully devoted towards helping Mark figure out their current problem. Mark reasoned that, now that Jackson knew what the plan was, he should at least bare some responsibility into figuring out when their little experiment should be put to an end.

He also knew that Jackson was also spending more time with Yugyeom , which left Mark feeling out-of-place and (he hated to admit it) lonely. As Jackson’s best friend, shouldn’t he get more time with the other than Yugyeom, some one-night-stand with no prior history with Jackson?!

Before he could further spiral into a pit of self-deprecation, the blanket was snatched away from him. Knowing that Jackson was the only person that could be in their shared dorm, Mark just turned to face towards the couch, content to ignore his best friend.

“Man, you look like a hermit. That sweatpants-hoodie outfit you’ve got going on screams I’ve given up on everything .”

Mark knew Jackson was right, but he preferred not to inflate the other’s ego more than he had to. Instead, he just shrugged and tried to make himself become one with the couch.

Mark could feel Jackson still standing over him on his place on the couch and reluctantly turned onto his back, loosening the hood a little so he could peek out at his roommate. Upon seeing Jackson’s determined glare, he knew that he would be receiving another one of Jackson’s lectures and tried to roll back. Before he could get far, he felt Jackson grab his arm and roughly tug him up into a seated position, the hoodie unceremoniously yanked off of his face with Jackson’s other hand. A little shocked at Jackson’s forceful move, but not willing to let himself be manhandled, Mark yanked his arm from Jackson’s grip and stood toe to toe with the other male, feeling his irrational anger and jealousy uncontrollably rise with each passing second.

“Jackson, what the hell was that for?!” Even though Mark was only three inches taller than the other, he used the height in his favor to tower over Jackson in an attempt to make the other relent.

Jackson stood up straight and met Mark’s fierce glower evenly, apparently not perturbed by the size different. “You’re wallowing in your own misery again, Mark. It isn’t a good look for a newly retired superhero.”

Mark scoffed and glanced away,not willing to meet his friend’s eyes because of how accurate the description was. Shoving his hands into his sweatpants pockets, Mark tried to project an uncaring attitude to protect himself from Jackson’s searching looks. “I am not retired, I am undercover. I was not wallowing in my own misery, I was just frustrated by having been abandoned by my closest friend since he apparently believes that his relationship with Yugyeom is more important than ours.”

Mark felt a pang of regret as he saw the hurt flare up in Jackson’s eyes but the need to lash out was stronger than the need to comfort his friend in that moment.

Similarly, Jackson saw the uncertainty and agony clearly displayed in Mark’s expression. When he walked into the room, the image of Mark’s unmoving form underneath their stress blanket provided a clear indication of Mark’s mental state. Jackson had to sit by and watch as Mark scoured the news reports daily in order to find any truth to his hypothesis about the villains. However, with each passing day the crime rates skyrocketed and the villains gave no indication that they were anything other than pure evil, causing Mark to slowly lose hope and submit to the self-imposed guilt that his fake death caused. Jackson hated to see his friend in such a state and while he might not fully agree with Mark's idea, he had to give his friend credit; Mark’s intuition was usually right and, being the greatest bestie in the world, Jackson did his best to push aside his ill-feelings towards the villains that almost killed his best friend in order to become Mark’s personal cheerleader and support system. Even if Mark didn’t necessarily see it that way.

With all this in mind, Jackson took a deep, calming breath and pushed down his own desire to put Mark in his place. Taking a slow, steady breath, Jackson continued in a tone that he hoped was even and calm.

“You know fully well that our friendship means more to me than the world itself. We’ve just been cramped up in the dorm for a while and I thought that you might want some space so I went to try and see how Yugyeom AND Bambam are doing.”

“I never said I wanted space. YOU were the one who ASSUMED that you knew what was best for ME. But you were wrong, AS ALWAYS. I know you just wanted to get away from me, Jackson! I could see it every time you went out to hang out in somebody else’s room. I’m probably not WORTHY enough in your eyes since I’m not your personal bodyguard anymore to save you from whatever STUPID scenario you had gotten yourself caught up in! I mean seriously, who in their right mind allows themselves to be kidnapped EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK?”

Mark’s tone rose with each word, face becoming red with anger with his hands balled into fists at his side. Jackson wrapped his arms around himself unconsciously as he did his best to ignore the hurtful words spewing out of his friend’s mouth and took a step back from the other.

“Mark, you are literally the only person in the world that I think would be worthy enough to have these amazing superpowers. Even if you never got them, I would think you were worthy enough to get to know and become friends with! You’re inspiring, funny, kind and have always been there for me even when I’m not at my best. And I’m trying to do the same for you, right now. I know you feel guilty and struck down because you’re losing hope in your idea, but just give it a couple more days and I’m sure-”

Deep down, Mark knew that Jackson had only the best intentions at heart. If he told anyone else his crazy plan, he knew he would be met with angry individuals demanding that he take action against the villains. But Jackson took Mark’s words in stride and made a noticeable effort to support Mark even though he knew that Jackson would never forgive Dark Soul or Project J for trying to kill him. He loved Jackson like he was his own brother and made a promise to himself that he would protect him with everything he had. Which is why Mark will never forget the look on Jackson’s face when the need to hurt something caused Mark to say this:

“JACKSON! You are the most DIM-WITTED person I know when it comes to ANYTHING even VAGUELY emotional. How can you be sure that my gut-feelings is a SURE THING when you can’t even DISTINGUISH any other feeling out there? I’M not even sure I’m right anymore, which SHOULD tell you that this whole plan was a fluke and that YOU are a complete IDIOT for ever trusting me! Of course, you’ll always support me and follow me, yada yada yada, but can’t you get your OWN life instead of always inserting yourself into MINE? Why don’t you run on back to YUGYEOM. Anybody can see that he wants more than the one night you gave him. Maybe he’ll fuck some feelings into you and boy, has he got A LOT of feelings for you. But you wouldn’t know that now would you? You’ll just string him along and act completely obtuse as the fool throws lovesick glances your way whenever you give him even the SLIGHTEST BIT of attention and only use him for a convenient lay. I know you too, Jackson, and I know that you CRAVE attention and validity and when I couldn’t give it to you, when I REJECTED you all those months ago, you RAN towards whatever source would fill the hole that I LEFT.”

By the end of his whirlwind speech, Mark was almost screaming at Jackson and for a second, he felt a twinge of victory at having shut the other up. The short lived moment was immediately washed away as he noticed the hurt, shock and fear in the other’s eyes. During his blind rage, Mark had unwittingly caged Jackson against his bed, Mark’s hands gripping the bed frame on either sides of Jackson’s waist. Mark quickly released his hold and scrambled back as much as he could to give Jackson his space. To his dismay and utter horror, Mark saw that his hands were glowing a faint red and had turned the wooden bed frame black where he had touched it, the smell of burnt wood rising in the air.

Feeling completely sick with guilt, Mark dropped to his knees and looked up at Jackson with wet eyes. “Oh god… Jackson… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it, you know I would never hurt you and there was absolutely NO TRUTH to anything I said!”

Mark saw Jackson starting to completely shut down, his emotional walls going up to protect him from Mark. Desperate to take his words back and get rid of the glazed look in Jackson’s eyes, Mark tentatively reached out to Jackson’s ankle to try and provide a grounding presence before Jackson completely closed off. Before he could even touch the other, Jackson launched himself over Mark’s outstretched hand and sprinted towards the closet, grabbing the first hoodie he saw, and throwing the door open, desperate to escape the hurtful words still ringing in his ears.

“JACKSON! WAIT-” Mark screamed out, but the sound of the slamming door cut off the rest of his sentence, leaving him sprawled out on the floor with his hand outstretched and a sense of loss as he watched one of the most important people in his life run away from him. For a moment, it all felt like a dream. Mark laid down on the couch, accidentally fell asleep and was currently having a nightmare that he’d wake up from any moment. But as he turned to look at Jackson’s bed with the scorch marks deeply imbedded into the wood, he knew that he had royally fucked up.

________________________________________________________________

I don realized I forgot to post this chapter to tumbler.... literally gag me with a spoon I can’t believe I done this....

#markson #jackbum #jaeson #jackson wang #mark tuan #fanfic #lololol he really went off #jackgyeom

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crusherthedoctor · 5 years

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Sonic & Tails: Beyond the Stars - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Lambs to the Laughter

"So uh, is there something we can do for you?" Sonic asked Vector, as he leaned to his side against the cavern wall. He was still surprised that the crocodile of all people came to Viridonia out of the blue, along with his crew. The others were naturally just as curious.

"Well, we didn't come all the way here just to look for you, if that's what you're thinking," Vector explained quickly. "We were actually taking a vacation here, since we figured we could do with one! Hardworking detectives need some R&R too, after all!"

"No one's been coming to us lately anyway," Espio dryly added, arms crossed.

"Shhhhhh," the annoyed crocodile whispered, with a finger at his mouth. He turned back to the group. "Anyway, we soon learned about this big monster going around terrorizing the people, and that Dr. Eggman was here too. Now, I'm an easygoing man, but I couldn't sit by while that moustached monkey is afoot. So we decided-"

"YOU decided," Charmy cheekily corrected.

"...WE decided to get to the bottom of it and figure out what's going on. Unfortunately though..." Vector scratched the back of his scaly head in embarrassment. "Despite our skills, we've been having difficulties so far. Been one step behind every step of the way, cause of... well..."

He nodded towards the hedgehog. Sonic took a moment to realise the implication, as shown by his confused glance with Tails. But the moment it clicked, his gradually smiled sheepishly. He shrugged along with it.

"Well, Sonic isn't my name for nothing," he chuckled mildly.

"Now you guys are always in the center of Eggman's schemes, right? So we reckon that if we stick around with you, our chances will be greater."

"Otherwise we'd be clueless!" Charmy beamed.

"Charmy, geeze!"

"Well, that's fine with us, Vector," Tails smiled earnestly, yet slightly awkwardly, having attempted to conceal his begrudging amusement at the detective's frustration. "Any help is good help. Right, Sonic?"

"Right on, little buddy," Sonic agreed, with a thumbs up directed at the fox. He turned his head. "How about you, Trudy? You okay with them tagging along?"

"Of course," Lutrudis answered casually and without hesitance, despite her initial perplexment at the newcomers' presence. She walked closer to the Chaotix, and smiled at them. "Long as their hearts are just, you won't see me dismissing these... characters. I'm Lutrudis, by the way." She bowed respectfully towards them.

"Pleased to meet ya, Latruedish!" Vector announced proudly, with his hands on his hips, and a toothy grin. Espio looked subtly horrified by his teammate's abysmal pronunciation. Tails likewise cringed internally. The smile on the horse's own face did not falter in the slightest.

"So doing detective talk for a sec," Sonic started semi-jokingly. "Got any leads on where we should head to first?"

"Yes actually," Vector boasted. "Before we came here, we had deduced the very probable likelihood that Eggman may be heading for... Merry Villa."

"Merry Villa?" Lutrudis questioned, as one of her ears lowered. "But that's not an huge monument or anything, that's just... the theme park. Why would Eggman head there? I mean, I know the doctor has a history with theme parks, but that can't be the only reason, can it?"

"You are severely underestimating his preferences," Espio mused, as he polished one of his shuriken.

"Yeah, he's got an obsession with them... a major obsession with them. I would know..." The tone in Sonic's voice indicated his memory had recalled a certain amusement park of the past that the doctor created... his tone also indicated he swiftly wanted to forget about it.

"So let's gooooo! I wanna see it too!" Charmy immediately flew out of the cavern in a frenzy of ecstasy, to which an exasperated Vector followed him, who was in turn followed by Espio. Sonic was about to follow suit, but he turned to Lutrudis with a smile.

"Maybe we'll have some fun there too," he suggested, before he walked out. As Tails waited patiently for Lutrudis, the latter glanced at the crystals all around her, each of them still brimming with different energies. Her body language initially conveyed a hint of hesitance, a doubt that it was her position to use them. But she recalled her friends' words of wisdom, and after putting her doubts aside for the sake of the now, she opened up her backpack...

---

"Are you sure they'll be alright in there?" Tails asked in reference to the bag full of excited Chao that was twice the size of Cream, which the young rabbit was nonetheless holding onto with surprisingly little effort.

"Yes, Tails," Cream replied happily. Lutrudis was personally unsure about bringing the Chao along with them to a place where Eggman might be, but it was either that or leaving them on their own in the castle, and Amy had already insisted with great enthusiasm that she and the rabbit come along to check out this Merry Villa. The horse trusted that her friends knew what they were doing, since they've been on more adventures than her.

They were running through the quiet streets of Lime Shores, albeit not at their highest running speed, as Sonic finally remembered that not all of his friends were as lightning fast on their feet as he was, and he didn't want to take a toll on Lutrudis' sensitive legs. The town itself was drastically different than how Sonic was used to it. Far from the turquoise he was accustomed to seeing in the daytime, the starry night gave the buildings a sheen of purple and pink. It clearly wasn't a simple paint job, as every last building was altered in the same way, and they looked even more translucent. Could this have a connection with the Ethereal Zone's lingering effects too...?

Whatever the story was, it looked incredible. The blue hero mentally cursed Eggman for disrupting their intended vacation time in such a beautiful region, and made yet another mental note to himself to check this all out for longer after the villain was dealt with.

"You think cute couples can get in free at this one?" Amy joked in Sonic's direction, though not without sounding a tad hopeful. Sonic simply smirked.

"As if we won't get in free regardless," he snarked playfully. "We've never NOT got into these things for free... Casino Night, Casinopolis, Casino Park... It's kind of amazing, now that I think about it."

"Well, you ARE the hero of the world. Maybe they understand that they'd all be suffering under Eggman's rule if it weren't for you?" Amy smirked in return.

"Or maybe they suck at their jobs," the male hedgehog laughed, and Amy laughed along with him.

Meanwhile, Lutrudis tried to strike up a conversation with the Chaotix, in an effort to get more acquainted with them. "So you guys don't like Eggman either?" she asked as she glanced up at Vector.

"Nope," Vector stated firmly, eyes straight ahead. "He's a scoundrel."

"He's corrupted," Espio added.

"He looks weird!" Charmy finished, and made a weird face of his own to go along with it. "With that pink nose and those whiskers on his face!"

"Well, I quite agree that he's a menace." Lutrudis was still pacing herself to decrease the chances of her body overexerting itself. "And you help Sonic out on occasion, to defend the world against his horrific tyranny? That's very noble, and commendable." She let out another friendly smile.

Vector paused. He soon realised that their actual reason of wanting Eggman to pay up for an incident years ago might not sound particularly dashing, and he didn't want to bust his first impression.

"...Yeah. Sure."

"Ooooh, is that it?" Cream pointed, still not affected in any way by the weight of her bag full of Chao. The rest of the group were so deep into their conversations that they hadn't realised they were already there. Lutrudis checked for each of their reactions, and outside of Espio's low-key intrigue, they were all dazzled.

"~Chao!~" Cheese cried happily.

"That's it, alright," Tails muttered in amazement. "That looks..."

"AWESOME!" Charmy completed the fox's sentence without asking.

"This is perfect for us!" Amy beamed, and hopped slightly in excitement. "Way better than Eggman's glorified death traps! What do you think, Sonic?"

"Uh..."

It really was something else. His adventures had sent him through countless amusement-related facilities in the past, made by Eggman or otherwise, but for one that wasn't devised by the scientist, it certainly had just as much unique grandeur. Behind an impressively-sized archway, with the title carved into it, were the expected rollercoasters, big wheel, challenges... all complimented by giant marble structures and walls, the latter of which were decked out in a selection of funky patterns with paint. The hero couldn't guess if there was any symbolic meaning to them, but partly because he was also distracted by the many spherical trees throughout the park, each of them boasting different coloured leaves from red all the way to purple. The cobblestone on the ground was practically polished, and the grass alongside it was a faint, bubblegum pink.

Of course, some of this was harder to notice among the crowds upon crowds of ecstatic citizens running around and having the time of their lives. But Sonic noticed all of it regardless, and if the glint in his eye hadn't given it away, he was undoubtably impressed with the showing.

"At least we're getting in free after all... like always... Hey, while we're here...!" His attention compromised, he ran up to a rotund mole, who was standing beside a Test Your Strength challenge.

"Really?" Espio scoffed. "Right now?"

"Yeah, aren't we kind of... looking for Eggman?" Tails wondered in confusion. "Not that I don't like the look of this place, but..."

Sonic wasn't paying attention to them however, as his eyes were focused intently on the prize at stake: a real necklace in the style and pattern of a flower crown. He knew Cream would love the look of this, and he was determined to win it for her.

"May I?" he asked the older mole, as he picked up the hammer required for the challenge.

"Go right ahead, sir," he replied in a posh accent.

The hedgehog chuckled to himself, as he tightened his grip on the hammer. Everyone else gathered round, some more reluctantly than others. He prepared himself, he aimed at the target on the ground, he threw himself back, and with lightning speed...

WHACK!

...He didn't get it.

"What!?" Sonic barked angrily. "How the heck was that not strong enough!? Is this rigged?"

"Anyone else want to try?" the posh mole asked, not answering Sonic's question. His moustache hid the amused smirk on his face.

"Me!" Amy called out as she raised her hand. "Got experience with hammers, you know," she winked playfully. The mole nodded wordlessly, and handed the hammer over to her. Sonic was still visibly annoyed at the implication that the guy who beat numerous ancient entitles was apparently not enough for this simple carnival challenge.

Amy readied herself, with a closed eye, and her tongue sticking out. Espio was rolling his eyes, and Vector put his hands in his pockets rather awkwardly. With a lot of energy, she gave it her all...

"Yah!"

WHACK!

...Still no victory.

"Aw, come on!" she complained. "I totally put everything into that one!"

"Anyone else...?" the mole asked again. He was not too subtly entertained by these proceedings. "Perhaps you, madam?"

He looked in Lutrudis' direction. She blinked, and turned to Sonic and Amy. They both shrugged. Turning back, she nervously walked up to the mole, despite her obvious lack of confidence. Might as well try it for Cream's sake, right?

"Don't be shy, you might have what it takes..." the mole chortled lightly. Lutrudis laughed unconvincingly at his reassurance, but slowly took the hammer from him anyway. She walked up to the target on the ground, positioning herself as carefully as she could. Her tail flicked slowly back and forth as she focused. She closed her eyes tightly, as she prepared to strike...

WHA-BOING!

She opened her eyes, taken off guard by a very different noise. She looked at the moustached mole, who looked as though he had seen a ghost. She turned to everyone else, who all shared the exact same expression. Wondering what they were all looking at, she glanced at the top of the machine... or rather, where it used to be. It was now on the ground, broken, along with the meter itself.

She stared at the ruined machine blankly, only blinking a few times. She then stared at her hands, which were still gripping onto the hammer. She looked at the machine again, with the same blank emotion. Incredibly slowly, she shyly gave the hammer back to the mole, whose gaze was still in the same place. She stood beside him, with her hands behind her back. Her eyes glanced to the side.

"So uh..."

Without a further word from her, he handed the necklace over to her. His head still didn't turn, nor did the bewildered look on his face.

"Thank you, sir..." Lutrudis mumbled nervously, before she turned to Cream to give the prize over. As soon as she saw it, and realised it was for her, the rabbit jumped for joy and hugged the horse's legs. Lutrudis in turn simply pat her on the head, smiling contently. The rest of the group, Sonic and Amy included, walked away from the scene one by one, still notably shocked by what just happened. As Cream skipped along to catch up with Amy, Lutrudis stopped for a moment, and walked back to the elderly mole. His face was still exactly the same, and it seemed nothing would snap him out of his shock at this rate.

"Keep the change," she awkwardly muttered as she placed a twenty note into his pocket. She walked off without another word, somewhat quickly at that.

---

Merry Villa Zone

Act 1: Parade Plaza

Lutrudis’ Badnik Logs: Splats - "These may be the hoppiest bunnies I've ever seen. They're also the most malicious, as they have full intention to flatten you with their springs. Cute as they begrudgingly are, they don't hold a candle to Cream."

Dribbler - "The basketball kind, not the... you know... kind. Anyway, those bumpers they're so fixated on aren't just for show, for they're capable of using their slam dunking expertise to do you in. I sincerely doubt they wish to welcome us to the jam."

Buyon - "More bunnies! But these ones are even less adorable than Cream, not to mention their peculiar talent of extending and defending themselves with a gelatinous substance, thereby rendering themselves impervious to your attacks until they shrink back down. You would think they'd stay like that forever with such a defense."

Glider Pawn - "Purple as the night, Glider Pawns serve their namesake by riding atop their bat-shaped contraptions. They hang around in the air like a pungent smell, and their pumpkin-themed grenades show no mercy. Apparently, they're not too fond of arachnids."

Mimento - "These lanky boys take their business to a new level, as their hand miming somehow deflects you if you try to swipe them, as if they were using a shield. Your best bet is to catch them from behind. The doctor ought to be ashamed for giving monochromatic people a bad name."

Unicrusher - "There's no one riding them, but these unicycles can roll along just fine, and their spiked wheels do little to slow them down. Perhaps we could get one of the spikes to pop them?"

Welcome to Merry Villa, the brightest park in the land, and an adrenaline junkie's dream for no extra charge. (Suppose Heavy Rider would be up for it then.) The sights and spots may catch your attention, but you better not gawk for long if Eggman is around, and that's assuming he's alone. But you are the fastest around, so maybe you could get away with it...

The fancy, multi-layered fountain in the center highlights the considerable deco of the park, with a few parkgoers tossing a ring into it to make a wish. What could they be wishing for? To become a billionaire? To cure all the world's diseases? ...To not get killed by robots tonight? You can go right in the fountain and take those rings for yourself if you really want to, though Lutrudis will advise against it for moral reasons. On the other hand, Vector will strongly suggest it for monetary reasons.

The tall lampposts along the pathways illuminate the area nicely, but so do the grenades of the meddling Glider Pawns. If you defeat them quickly enough, you can briefly ride atop their gliders yourself, before they eventually explode. Note that they only go straight ahead though, meaning they turn about as well as you did back in Soleanna. (Relax, the illusion that you don't remember that one died ages ago.) You can also interact with the workers in oversized mascot suits, which includes possums, jackrabbits, and bobcats. Their appearance seems to be somewhat derivative... and the kids seem to be weirded out by them too.

Bobcat Mascot: There's no need to be afraid, boys and girls! What could possibly go wrong?

Sonic: Your career, apparently...

You can also run up and along the mildly psychadelic patterned walls, which are occasionally separated by small streams of water. And then there's the rides themselves. Climb up the big wheel (or fly, if you're Tails) to get a good view, race along the rollercoasters for shortcuts, scale the swinging pirate ships to nab some hidden items, and watch out for dodgem-manning Egg Pawns. Note that if you take a route involving an especially speedy or momentum-based ride, Lutrudis will always take a detour, as those kind of rides wouldn't do her body any favors.

By the way, yes, she noticed the merry go round. Yes, she noticed it had horses. Yes, she knows Sonic noticed them too.

Lutrudis: Go on then. What witticism do you wish to share about them?

Sonic: Well, they're not as pretty, I guess!

Lutrudis: ...???...

If you climb the big wheel, you can actually see some of the other zones in Viridonia, hiding far away in the background. And not just the ones you've already explored, but a few examples of new territory as well... including a mountain even greater in scale than Zephyr Mountain, covered completely from top to bottom in snow. As beautiful as it looks, you can't help but sense something foreboding about it...

Aside from the aforementioned Glider Pawns, Buyons and Mimentos will prove to be the biggest annoyances of this Badnik selection. Luckily, you've dealt with Buyons in the past, and the strategy for them before works just as well here, so just wait for them to shrink. Mimentos don't cause any damage themselves, but they have a knack for standing near obstacles that will hurt you. All the more reason to use your head when dealing with these jokers.

The end of the stage is signified by the presence of a tunnel. A rather pretty tunnel actually, that's teeming with waterfalls and flowers. Wait, you don't think this could be...

---

"A Tunnel of Love!" Amy gushed merrily. "Not even Twinkle Park had one of these! Let's try that out!"

"All of us...?" Espio muttered awkwardly. He didn't think his expert ninja training would come to this, though it wasn't as if he had anything better to do at this moment in time.

"That's a wonderful idea!" Cream complimented cheerfully, and the numerous Chao on her person were voicing their approval as well, in their famously distinctive language.

"Seems kinda girly though..." Charmy thought, clearly not as impressed with it as he was with the rollercoasters. "Like Vector's singing."

"I heard that!" the crocodile complained.

"Can we, Sonic? Pretty please?" Amy made sure to master her best puppy dog eyes for maximum effect. Sonic rolled his eyes, though it was obviously in jest.

"Whatever, no harm I guess," Sonic shrugged as they all got on the nearby boat one by one. In another stunning display of the hedgehog's luck with parks, no one was there to demand a fee from him. The boat itself was - somewhat predictably for this occasion - shaped like a large gondola, and it had no trouble with housing eight anthros. And Chao. Tails was at the front, followed by the Chaotix, then Amy and Cream, then Sonic and Lutrudis.

As their little ride through the tunnel started, they immediately noticed that the roof of the tunnel displayed huge constellations, and other forms of dazzling astral projections. Neon purple lights shined throughout the "night sky", which reflected off the water and flora. Amy and Cream were immediately hooked, as was Tails.

"Man..." Vector let out quietly.

"Okay, this is pretty rad," said Charmy, having retracted his previous sentiment.

Everyone was deeply focused on the spectacle, and Sonic himself was no different. It almost reminded him of his experiences in the Chaos Emeralds' ever changing pocket dimension. He turned to Lutrudis to see her own reaction, and he saw the purple reflect off her brown eyes. He noticed this for perhaps longer than necessary.

"This is the first time I've been here," she commented, her eyes still looking up. Her arms were resting on her knees. "Never thought it would look like this."

"Really? Your first time? You've never been to the park in your own region?" Sonic raised an eyebrow, shocked by this claim. He looked around himself, taking the scenery in once more, before turning back to her. "Not a fan of places like this?"

"Oh no, it's not a taste thing," Lutrudis answered. "It's not that they're not made for me. Rather, it's... the opposite." She rubbed her arm with a little unease, clearly uncomfortable with having to remember the countless ways her life had to be made needlessly complicated through an undesirable situation. "I can't really get much mileage with most rides..."

Sonic continued looking at his friend. Though he understood her words immediately, he also sensed through her troubled body language that this wasn't just limited to parks.

"Don't take this the wrong way Trudy, but... you don't go out much, do you?" he asked out of concern. He really hoped she wouldn't be offended.

Lutrudis glanced at the others. She looked at Amy and Cream's unrestrained glee at the tunnel's beauty, and smiled, though it appeared bittersweet.

"No, not really. I know where everything is around here, but outside of my immediate area and the town, that's pretty much me." She chuckled. "I don't suppose the guardian of the Master Emerald would sympathise."

Sonic chuckled in turn, though that passed quickly. For someone who has lived the life that he has, and continues to live, it was obvious to him from his friend's tone that she desperately wanted to change this aspect of her own life, but felt unable to do so. All because of an illness beyond her control.

"You know... there's still a lot of places in the world," the hedgehog pointed out innocently. He didn't seem to realise he had scooted closer to her. "In all shapes and sizes. Surely there's many that would suit your needs, even if others don't."

Lutrudis paused to contemplate his suggestion. She appeared to be unsure about it, but after finding solace in his famous green eyes, which once again failed to show any sign that he didn't mean what he said, her ears slowly lowered.

"You really think there's more out there for me...?" she questioned.

Sonic simply nodded, with a warm look on his face. Lutrudis, very gradually, returned the hero's smile, not noticing that her hand was now slightly on top of his. If Sonic noticed it, he didn't show it, nor did he complain.

"Looks like this is the end of the path!" Tails called out, as he pointed towards the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Thank god, I was starting to get seasick," Vector muttered, his face having turned slightly blue.

"In a love tunnel...?" Espio queried.

"S-Shut up..."

---

Act 2: Toy Towers

Lutrudis’ Badnik Logs: Spiker - "Pointy, aren't they? But they're not. By violating common sense and bouncing on them, you will find that their spiked form is but a clever ruse. It's rather a shame that they tend to hide alongside real spikes..."

Ringleader - "Their blocky arms may look tough, but their danger actually comes from their underside, which can detach from the main body and slice you up like a particularly gruesome boomerang... Bonza...?"

Guards - "These... uh, guards, come in threes, and though they may be smaller than a mouse, they've got bombs hiding in those trumpets. Even though they can still play the trumpets just fine..."

Slitty - A slinky may be for every girl and boy, but if they're this sharp and hazardous, they're hardly a joy. Be cautious with stairs and ledges, as they like to hang around them... or drop down from them, to be more accurate."

Boxfiend - "It's a box, and there's a fiend inside... Brilliant. The striped jesters within are eager to pound you into dust with their oversized boxing gloves. Might want to watch your ear..."

Blocker - "Now the ABC's are trying to kill us. What will they think of next. Depending on which letter their face is, they can either open up to reveal a flamethrower, or they can... give you rings...? Was this an intentional design choice...?"

Returning Enemies: Dribbler

Sonic: Toys...?

Tails: Lots of them!

Cream: I like this place!

Espio: I don't.

Yes, it would seem that the Tunnel of Love brought us to a place where everything is made from toys. And I do mean everything, including the very ground you step on. The grass and the trees look as though they're made out of paper, and the towers made of different colored blocks are a size worthy for a giant's son... or Eggman, if you want to argue about what constitutes for a child.

Anyway, there's a whole bunch of gimmicks here, which naturally work in tandem with the motif going on here. Basketballs bounce along the ground, which you can jump on to gain height for trickier jumps, though you can also get crushed if you're underneath. You can jump even higher by bouncing on the giant trampolines, but you can also bust them if you strain them too much. Bonus points can be gained by scoring a bullseye on the dartboards... with the dart in question being you.

On another note, have you secretly entered a cartoon universe (that isn't your own)? It might feel that way, because you also have to deal with falling anvils, walls that don't actually exist, and stacks of dynamite lighting up on seemingly their own accord. Who could possibly be causing all this... magic?

Sonic: Did anyone else hear a weird... laugh?

It's this level where the Chaotix will really get to help you out. In areas where there's a lot of basketballs, Espio can fire his shuriken to pop some of them, which gives you a little more leeway. Vector, if you desire, can use his music to knock down some towers, which can reveal some hidden goodies. And Charmy can take care of some enemies in the air if you're busy dealing with them on land. Of course, the others in your group can still help out as well.

"~Mmm hmm hmm!~"

Tails: There it is again! That laugh!

Amy: Come on out and show yourself, coward!

Lutrudis: Wonder what they find so funny...

Around the halfway point, you'll arrive in what appears to be an elaborate mini-golf course. There's no ball though, so I guess you'll have to stand in for it. There's plenty of smooth slopes to get your speed going, but be careful as you roll under narrow windmills, and avoid the holes that count as pits. There should really be a safety inspector for this.

The further you go on, the more the oddities ramp up. Some of the walls will suddenly try to flatten you, enemies will start appearing out of thin air, and at one point, even Sonic himself gets a different coat of paint, his fur now being green with black on top.

Sonic: HEY! Change me back right now, whoever you are! Or else...!

Magician: Only if you win, my blue comrade. But I fear this resulting match, will become quite sad!

Sonic: Oh great, it's you...

BOSS: Heavy Magician

Magician is a talkative robot.

Magician: You shall not evade my tricks, for this time the doctor's victory will stick!

She also likes to rhyme.

Magician: Are you daring to have a go? Try as you might, this will be your last foe!

A lot.

Magician: Don't see fit to be so coarse, for there are many things I could do to your horse!

Lutrudis: Thanks for making me feel involved, I guess...

The witch-like fiend tends to fly all around, waving her erratic hands all the way. Though she's not afraid to fire a drop of magic directly at you now and then, she favors using the environment against you. In addition to making enemies appear and altering the walls to squash you, she also summons falling anvils, and she can knock the block towers herself at the expense of your own wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, she also hides a lot of the time, which includes making herself invisible.

The key to beating her is by out-tricking her. She may fly around, but she's usually close to where you are. So if, say, you activated one of the squashing walls, and waited till the last second to escape from it... you might just get her squashed in your place, which will deactivate her invisibility cloak for a brief period. Give 'er the ol' one-two spin, and the cycle repeats.

...For a while. But she sees your ways eventually, and thus she decides to change tactics. How? By doing what every annoying boss worth their salt does... by cloning herself. You now have four copies of Magician to deal with, and you gotta figure out which one's the real deal. How do you do that? By noticing something off about their design? By noticing a difference in speed?

Nope. You just need to wait until the real Magician blabbers in rhyme again, thereby giving herself away, as the clones don't say anything. As punishment for her vice, you can keep up the beatdown, and after eight hits in total, the rascally robot will fly away, but not before one last ominous message...

Magician: Your strength and speed may be worth a crave, but when you see what we have in store, you will share a pretty grave!

---

"At least my fur's back to normal," Sonic muttered, as it restored itself to its usual blue. "I'd like to see her try that again..."

"What did she mean about us sharing a grave?" Cream asked fearfully. One of the Chao in her bag tried valiantly to pat the side of her head.

"Don't listen to her," Amy put her hand on the young rabbit's shoulder. "She's just trying to scare us," she added confidently. Just after she said this, her ear suddenly twitched madly. She appeared to feel a strange and unexpected sense of euphoria, judging from the strong look on her face.

"Is it just me, or do I smell something really tasty?"

The rest of the group exchanged glances of varying confirmation, until Amy pointed to where she thought it came from. Another tunnel from the looks of it, although this one had no water. Just by getting closer to it, her ear twitched again, even faster this time.

"DEFINITELY through here," she stated, with a hint of hunger lust.

"Don't you think this might be a trap?" Tails asked hesitantly. He looked behind him to see if anyone was following them through the tunnel.

"Indeed, we haven't encountered the doctor in this facility yet," Espio mentioned.

"Who cares? I'm hungry!" Charmy reasoned.

Lutrudis raised an eye at the bee's apparent lack of self-preservation, though that's not to say she wasn't amused. She looked into her backpack, which - in addition to her usual arrows - was now filled with the mystical crystals from her cavern. Was it really a good idea to bring them along...?

"No trap would get past us. Besides, even if it is, we can take it on no prob-"

Sonic cut himself off upon witnessing the sight in front of him. Everyone else was similarly speechless, and Vector was practically salivating. Standing tall and proud was a land made almost completely out of tasty treats, and colorful delights. Checkered walls were made entirely of chocolate, hills were made of ice cream, rivers were made of strawberry milk, candy canes were planted here and there, bridges were made out of ice lollies... tempting was an apt word to describe this place. Why there weren't more people here remained a mystery.

"This is gonna be bad for my diet," Vector confessed.

"You don't have a diet," Espio countered.

"Fine, hypothetical diet."

"I can't resist..." Amy weakly muttered, before pouting sadly. "But I know I have to..."

"I feel you," Sonic replied, similarly fighting the temptation for the sake of finding Eggman. Lutrudis simply clenched her chest with her arms to fight against her own hunger. Tails had to be pat on the back by both Cream and Charmy as he puffed out in exhaustion at the prospect of there being mint candy.

---

Act 3: Confectionery Factory

Lutrudis’ Badnik Logs: Gingerdread - "Horror movie material right here. With their candy-colored ice picks, these grinning treats could skewer you if you're not careful. Pray tell, why must the doctor corrupt something so sweet?"

Caramelt - "These sentient blocks of chocolate look harmless enough, but getting close to them will cause them to separate and extend themselves through molten caramel. Way I see it, if you can't eat it without it burning your mouth off, it has simply failed as an edible."

Gobshocker - "They're blue and round just like you, Sonic. But they're twice your size, and they can charge themselves with electricity. Won't be eating that one, then..."

Jellybomber - "They've got a lot of jellybeans in their glass cases, but don't get your hopes up, they're just explosives. Doesn't matter which colour they fire, they're all made with the intent to blow you to kingdom come... Maybe the red ones aren't too bad though...?"

So I guess Viridonia is pretty lax about getting sued...

But who could blame the heroes for their temptation? This is every diabetic's greatest dream. And there's so much to choose from, so there's bound to be something for you! Candy, chocolate, ice cream, killer robots, the list is endless!

Naturally, there's a lot of gimmicks here as well. Giant muffins take the place of trampolines, you can spin up candy canes, and cake frosting works exactly the same as ice, though fortunately the latter sections are rarely next to anything especially dangerous. Licorice can be grinded on, and the strawberry milk is free to swim around in... and your character will remain pink for a few seconds after they come out, much to their chagrin. And if you search hard enough, you can find candy based on Sonic's own face! Complete with gumballs for eyes...

Sonic: ...I look nothing like that.

If you're able to run on top of one of the giant lollipops, with a little help from Lutrudis' whip, you can get it to fall on its side and whack another lollipop on the way down, which will cause that one to fall and whack another one, and the conker effect resumes until the last one crashes down onto a gate concealing a bunch of extra lives. Other tricks include pushing protruded chocolate blocks on the walls into their slots for more points (which Amy will occasionally sort out herself courtesy of her hammer), and just like in the jungles of Tricky Tropics, you can use the confectionery against your enemies should you possess the high intellect to do so. What's the best way to get rid of a Caramelt? By dunking them with ten times more caramel!

Strangely enough, the trickiest obstacle aside from the robots are the bridges made from ice lollies. You see, they work just like ice as well, but the speed changes depending on which colour you're currently sliding on... and the bridges consist of all the colours, meaning one moment you could be sliding normally, and the next moment you're suddenly sliding at faster speeds. Here's a handy checklist for which colours are which:

Purple and Pink > Slow

Cyan and Blue > Moderate

Yellow and Green > Fast

Red and Orange > Might as well be Mach Speed

So be careful. Otherwise your golden ticket will be for nothing. Did I mention that Gingerdreads sometimes occupy the bridges as well? At least they're affected by the different speeds too.

Towards the end, which is signified by a whole pack of Gobshockers, Heavy Magician suddenly appears again to knock all of you into a nearby chute. The good news is that it's just more strawberry milk. The bad news is that it's a current.

Vector: Yaargh!

Tails: Hang on guys!

Sonic: It's like the dam all over again!

Magician: ~Mmm hmm hmm!~

This one is a little harder, because not only is the path notably more diagonal and confusing, there are also floating Jellybombers, whose ability to pelt you with candy-colored bombs has not been impeded by the current. There's also a few more obstacles to avoid alongside them, like cherries and chocolate blocks. But if you persevere in one piece, you'll make it out alive. Literally. You're outside now, though still within the park. As you clean yourself up after that strawberry bath, you can spot some fancy lights in the distance, and a giant tent among them...

---

"Everyone okay?" Sonic asked, as he got the rest of the milk out of his right ear.

"Yeah... I think," Amy replied, slightly knocked out by the prior affair. Cream checked frantically that every Chao they had was still safe and sound in her bag, and to her relief, they were. Espio was trying to wipe the pink off of his horn, to debatable success, and Charmy was cleaning Vector's back. Tails used his twin tails to fan the rest of the substance off of Lutrudis.

"Well at least we're out of there now," Tails thought, though a hint of his hunger remained. "Any longer in there, and I would have acted on my impulses," he joked.

"Maybe you SHOULD have acted on them!" an unexpected voice called out to them from a very loud radio.

"Eggman!" Amy got into her usual defensive position with her hammer, even though the doctor wasn't technically present. "So you ARE here after all!"

"Of course," the arch villain confirmed. "Gotta check out rival theme parks after all! This one isn't bad, but I could make it so much better! And did they rip me off with that little candy factory of theirs...? How predictable for them to steal from my genius."

"Alright doc, where's the money?" Vector put up his dukes, and Espio and Charmy rallied beside him. "You KNOW I'll never let that go until we get it!"

"Money...?" Lutrudis questioned.

"Oh, get over that already, you mediocre detective. I said I'd give you it once the world is mine, yes? Ever consider that getting in my way delays that? Hmmmm?"

"Where are you, Eggman?" Sonic demanded firmly. He knew the scientist was up to something from his far too casual tone, and he didn't like it.

"You really want to know? Right here! In the Big Top! I've got a show of my own prepared, and I'd be grief-stricken if you missed it. Come inside... if you dare! Ho ho!"

The giant tent they could see even from a distance was a spectacle. It stood tall and wide, with red and white stripes, along with dozens upon dozens of bulbs around the outside perimeter that lit the place up nicely. Not that it needed them, since the surrounding area was also filled with lights, as well as smaller tents colored blue, with purple patterns. The spotlights shot up to the night sky, like a laser through butter.

The group looked at the main tent with a look of doubt, which they then exchanged with one another. Espio was already polishing his shuriken again, just in case.

"This is probably a bad idea," Lutrudis said what everyone else was thinking, the innocent Cream included. The horse's right foot was kicking the ground a little, possibly out of anxiousness.

Sonic nodded, though his look of determination remained. "But the only way our goose chase can end is when we get more words out of him. He's got arrogance the size of a moon, he'll blurt out something sooner or later."

"And he'll give us our money sooner or later..." Vector added through gritted teeth, and clenched fists. Charmy offered a look of sympathy.

---

Act 4: Cirque de Spectre

Lutrudis’ Badnik Logs: Boo - "Eggman isn't a witch doctor, is he? Because these don't look like robots to me. And yet, given that they'll attempt to grab you and halt your movement, these paranormal hoodlums appear to be in league with him anyway. Why, though...?"

Pierrot - "As if clowns didn't have a bad reputation already. These fellows are quite versatile, as they can juggle with skittles, carry around a hammer twice their size, or balance themselves on a big shiny ball. All three tactics deliver the pain regardless, so beware."

Juggle Saw - "This crabby duo shares a buzzsaw with each other, which they'll hand over to one another after a short period. I think that might count as cheating in regards to juggling, but I'm hardly a circus connoisseur."

Jackalope - "These names certainly come from a right jackanape. Carved from metal rather than fruit, these pumpkins alternate between emotions. They take it easy with their bouncing if they're sad, but if they look happy, they go extremely fast... you're still the king of speed though, Sonic, don't worry."

Leo - "It's okay, it's only a robot lion... actually, that might be worse. Either way, they're quick to pounce on you, and they tend to do it in small packs. Good thing there's just as many of us, wouldn't you say?"

Gumbo - "Goodness, those are sizable elephants! Not only can they use their long ears to blow you away, they can also shoot a gooey substance out of their trunks that will briefly immobolise you... and it kind of stinks a bit, but at least it isn't fatal."

Returning Enemies: Buyon Unicrusher Boxfiend

At least Eggman had the decency to indulge in his circus fantasies while the planet isn't being invaded by aliens this time. Pumpkins litter every corner, white gates are closed off, and lights flash on and off in different patterns. This place may have not been built by the villain, but he's set up shop here nonetheless, as evidenced by his takeover of the big top and the usual robots running around causing mischief.

As Lutrudis already noted however, it's not just the doctor's goons you're fighting this time. The Boos have appeared to menace our heroic anthros once more, and while they've had a history of lounging around Eggman-occupied establishments, here they seem to be actively working for him as opposed to remaining a neutral third party. You can tell this, because they have no compunctions about teaming up with the robots to knock you down. What did Eggman do to them...?

Sonic: Not the first time he's enslaved ghosts.

Lutrudis: So not even the dead are safe from his tampering. That filthy beast...

They act exactly as they did all the way back in the A.R.K. incident. Luckily, they haven't improved either, so a quick spin or tail whack will be enough for them to disappear. Most of the robots are actually the bigger problem, particularly the Gumbos and Leos. And yes, those two do come together often, meaning it's very easy to get Gumbo's gunk on you, and immediately follow it up by Leos pouncing away at a now helpless you. The Badniks are getting smarter still with their strategies, but keep a collected head, and you'll do fine.

As for the environment itself, you can grind on certain corners of the tents, and should they see you, the spotlights will summon more robots for you to deal with. If you can't be bothered with that, you and Vector can team up to break them. There are also loads of floating red and white barrels, which you can use to gain more momentum, although Sonic seems to be rather iffy about them, for... whatever reason...

More daring obstacles include fiery hoops, the latter of which slowly turn around in the air, and rarely stay still. Venturing within the blue tents will treat you to trapezes that you can use, but watch out for Juggle Saws on the roof, as they might cut the wire with their sawblade. If it comes to that, there is mercifully no bottomless pit below... just a whole bunch of enemies, mostly Unicrushers. But you've got your friends (and the Chaotix) on your side, so we're even. And do watch out for the knives that go flying towards boxes, lest you want a death that isn't a trick.

As you get closer to the red tent, you can slowly start to hear a bunch of gibberish... familiar, high-pitched gibberish... It's definitely not coming from the doctor...

---

"Alright doc, we're ready for your little... game?"

No sooner than he went inside the tent was Sonic already caught by surprise. That same surprise reached everyone else's faces, though Espio looked only mildly confused. The tent looked as you expected, as brightly lit as the outside, and sure enough, Eggman was right there, on a throne high above the arena, with Orbot and Cubot at his sides. For reasons only known to himself, he was inexplicably wearing a black suit and top hat, complete with red cuffs and a stripe above the brim.

That wasn't what they were shocked about though. The screaming and pleading made that obvious. The audience, if you could call them that, were all watching behind bars, trapped in the tent for the purpose of watching Eggman's little show against their will. Notably, Eggman showed no emotional reaction to their relentless cries for help.

"Oh thank god, it's Sonic the Hedgehog!" a male giraffe noted, his neck poking through his bars. "Save us from this crazy man!"

"He's been playing his theme song for hours!" exclaimed a hippo, depressed from knowing the words of I Am The Eggman by memory despite wanting to forget them.

"And one of his robots shocked my mate Jerry!" a grieving ape explained. "I saw it with my own eyes! You've gotta stop that fool, Jerry was a good man!"

"Hmph," Eggman thought, as he crossed his arms. "Fool this, crazy that... Seems I can never get my deserved respect from you lot."

"What's respectful about enslaving innocents?" Amy questioned out of anger. Her hammer was ready to make contact with the doctor's cranium the moment the opportunity presented itself.

"Why do you do these things, Dr. Eggman?" Cream asked in addition, clearly upset that he continued to spread malicious intent rather than repent.

"Chao?" Cheese mused.

"Release them right now, Eggman!" Sonic insisted, as his spikes bristled.

"Uh, no?" Eggman blew a raspberry at his nemesis, complete with his hand on his nose. Cubot laughed at this. "Yeah, like I'm going to just do as you say. Keep on dreaming, hedgehog."

"Isn't that what you expect from everyone else?" Charmy pointed out. Both Vector and Espio looked at the bee in surprise, as they weren't used to this kind of reasonable logic coming from him.

"Wait a minute," Eggman suddenly paused, after noticing the bag on Cream's person. Whether he deliberately chose to dodge Charmy's query was up for debate. He could spot a familiar water dropped shape tucked in at the top of the bag.

"Chao," he muttered. His tone shifted. "You brought them here? Where you knew I would be?"

Cream froze in fear. She felt as though she was put on the spot. She didn't know how to answer the doctor, and she couldn't deal with feeling stupid. Said feeling increased by the second, and it was getting to her. Before she could mentally hyperventilate any longer however, Lutrudis stepped in front of her defensively, with her bow out.

"You're still not getting them," she bluntly stated. "They're not your tools."

"Oh yeah?" Eggman scoffed. "Says who?"

"Me," Sonic answered. He stood beside Lutrudis.

"And me," added Tails. He did the same.

"And me!" Amy said, as she went to the other side of the horse and rabbit.

"And us," Vector pointed at himself, with his two associates alongside him.

"You know, they kind of had you there when you asked that," Orbot pointed out, not even trying to hide his own amusement.

"Grrr, fine, so be it then!" He immediately went right back to grinning, as he took out a little bell. "Boo me all you want, ladies and gentlemen! You'll be speechless after I do... this!"

He rung the bell, which echoed throughout the tent. Not a second after, a flurry of wind started up from the inside, to which the heroes quickly held on to each other to keep themselves from flying out of the tent. The unfortunate prisoners were banging against their bars due to the wind, which they very loudly complained about. It soon became apparent however that the wind... wasn't wind. Rather, it was the entrance for a particularly spooky adversary.

"What the-!" Sonic let out in confusion. In front of them, out of the blue, was a gigantic ghost, with several of his followers by his side. His claws were bendy, his eyes were beady, and most jarringly of all, his tongue had all the colours of the rainbow. A certain echidna would have been all too familiar with this presence.

"BLARGH BLARGH BLAAAARRRRGHH!"

---

BOSS: King Boom Boo

Knuckles had an advantage back in the day, because it was still daylight when he fought Boom Boo. You do not have that advantage, and even if you did, there are no windows that could show him the light anyway. What's the strategy for him this time then? Your audience wouldn't know.

"What is that thing!?"

"But there's no such thing as ghosts!"

"DON'T LET IT KISS ME!"

First off, your friends will take care of the regular Boos (Espio is the best at eliminating them due to his speed and weapons), but if you help them out, you can get rid of them quicker. This actually works to your benefit, for although you'll have to avoid Boom Boo's blue fire and stupid laughter in the meantime, getting rid of the Boos means you can ALL focus on him. Of course, you still can't actually attack him, since there's nothing around to weaken him...

Unless... the crystals...

Lutrudis: Please don't backfire on me...!

In a moment of ingenuity, Lutrudis will get the idea to use her yellow crystals, which have electric capabilities. It might not be light, but it'll do. She might miss once or twice, but not as much as she would with the Paindozer. Her accuracy is getting better with moving targets, slowly but surely. With a direct hit from a crystal-imbued arrow, the king will be briefly paralyzed in shock, before he goes on a rampage around the arena. This is your chance for everyone and their dog to get a hit in, but beware, he's still electrified don't forget, so you need to time your hits to when he's NOT covered in static. Eggman is quick to notice the power of the horse's arrow, with an alarming intrigue.

Eggman: How... How did you do that...?

This process repeats two more times, but as you'll expect at this point, he changes things up halfway through. Not forgetting his other main ability, Boom Boo will dig into the ground and become a shadow, and will continue to hide in the ground and on the tent's walls unless you do something about it. All the while, the regular Boos will start using their master's fire to thwart you. It's at this point that Amy pipes up.

Amy: Maybe THIS will work...!

She will start hammering the ground with considerable force, which causes shockwaves. These shockwaves do not hurt you thankfully, although they can knock you on your derriere if you're clumsy, as evidenced with it happening to everyone else, particularly Vector. These shockwaves, if they reach Boom Boo's shadow, will not bring him out, but they WILL make his shadow bulge ever so slightly, for a brief moment. That's your cue to slam down on him, which will send him flying out of the ground in a panic. Lutrudis will then bring out the arrows again, and the routine goes from there, although the amount of Boos increase with each hit.

On his sixth and final hit, Boom Boo will absorb all the Boos in the vicinity to double his size, and he takes up the center of the arena. He'll send forth a very large pillar of blue flame from his mouth, and will go left and right with it, in different speeds. He won't let up for a good while, and it can be easy for him to catch you out, but eventually he'll tire himself out, with his tongue dangling from it. Lutrudis, somewhat begrudgingly because she doesn't want to feel like a sadist, will fire an electrified arrow at the tongue. As he goes absolutely ballistic, time yourself right and attack him right in the mouth. It's a critical hit, and he'll cry out in pain, explode wildly, and disappear as mysteriously as he entered. Well, what does Eggman have to say about this turn of events?

---

"Awesome job, Sonic!" a female sheep called out from her cage.

"Can I get your autograph... after I'm out of here?" asked a nervous otter.

"Not bad," Eggman dryly commented, clapping sarcastically all the while. He still had a smile on his face, which was seriously beginning to unnerve Sonic. He had seen it many times before, of course he had, but he could be counted on to lose it instantly and fly into a petulant rage the moment things went south. Why wasn't that happening this time? What was he so consistently giddy about?

"You know doc, I remember the days when you used to fight me all the time," the hedgehog said, trying his best to rile him up. His fists were still clenched. "Fought me in Green Hill, fought me in Emerald Hill, fought me in Splash Hill... What happened? Got cowardly on me?"

There was a glint in Eggman's glasses. Yet his grin stayed put. "Not at all, my blue foe. I've simply become a busy man, and while we're on that topic... you."

He immediately focused on Lutrudis, who slightly jumped at the sudden attention. Deep down however, she already figured out why he turned to her.

"Your arrows," he started. "Arrows don't do that. Not on their own. You've altered them, haven't you? And I think I know with what..."

There was a brief silence. Lutrudis and Eggman's shared glare remained for what felt like forever. Tails darted his eyes back and forth, waiting to see which of them broke the silence.

"Your suspicions are true," Lutrudis nervously, yet sternly replied. She saw no reason to hide or deny the obvious, since for all of the man's flaws, he was far from dumb. "And you're not getting those either. Not without a fight."

"Hmph," he scoffed again, looking at Orbot while he pointed at the lady like she was crazy. "And what, you think you're on the same category as the rest here? With that jello you call a body?"

Lutrudis' eyes froze.

He did not just say that.

The doctor's grin grew wider, knowing full well that he struck her hard. "Yes, that's right. I learned about your... situation, little pony. It's why you use those crystals, isn't it? Cause you know you're nothing without them."

She paused. And stuttered slightly. "That's not why..."

"Okay, you shut up right now," Sonic sneered at Eggman venomously, his spikes bristling up yet again. Amy was similarly fuming, and was gripping her hammer harder than ever. The Chaotix had no idea what they were talking about, but they disapproved of the doctor's comments regardless.

"Oh, but it's true though, isn't it?" He snickered briefly, as did Cubot, despite the latter not understanding the discussion in the slightest. Eggman continued. "You wake up every day, knowing that the world around you looks down on you, for offering nothing. Why settle for you, when they could settle for the gifted?"

"I swear Eggman," Sonic huffed, while being held back by a cautious yet sympathetic Tails. "If you don't shut your trap..."

Eggman leaned forward, as the light flashed on his grinning mug. He knew exactly what he was doing. "No one likes damaged goods, Lutrudis. Not even your supposed friends."

"Don't listen to him!" Cream cried out, who was clearly just as hurt by his remarks. "It's not true! You're not damaged like that!" Cheese appeared to be just as pained.

"What are you guys even talking about?" a confused rhino shouted. "We're waiting to be freed here!"

Lutrudis struggled to retort. She knew he was lying. She knew Sonic wasn't like that. She knew Tails wasn't like that. She knew none of them were like that. She knew better than to doubt them. She had no reason to doubt them.

But that's the thing. It wasn't them she doubted... it was herself. It wasn't a case of whether they were sincere, but rather whether she earned that sincerity to begin with. Did she really deserve their company...? Did she really deserve their companionship...?

"...Tell us why you want the Chao," she finally said, in an effort to change the subject, as well as to help her friends calm down. "And the crystals. The Wraith. The Ethereal Zone. All of it. What are you doing all this for?" Her voice was lower than usual, which matched the conflicted and distracted look of guilt on her face.

In a small burst of relief, the doctor did in fact change to that topic. "Still haven't figured it out, eh?" His smile increased in its smugness, and he crossed his legs stylishly. Evidently, he enjoyed being the smartest man in the room. He decided to humor his opponents' wish, for if only they knew how far this rabbit hole truly went...

"What if I told you that it's all... connected...?"

---

Back to Chapter 4-5 Interlude...

To Chapter 6...

#Sonic & Tails: Beyond the Stars #Crusher's Fanfiction #Sonic the Hedgehog #Fanfiction

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sternentinte · 5 years

Text

Emogust 2019 - 07. 08.| In which character A. is searching for a cat, and character B has found a cat around their windowsill

„Let me get this straight”, Shinichi says, slowly, “you lost the cat. How in the world did you manage to lose the cat?”

“Hime-chan got scared while I was working in the lab and slipped out.”, Haibara states, “you need to get her back.”

“You lost the cat and I need to get it back?”

“We lost the cat, of course you need to get her back. You are already in disguise anyway and I need to finish this up.” She gestures vaguely around the chemicals in the room.

Shinichi gives up trying to argue. He knows Haibara adores that cat and he himself is actually kind of fond of it to—there is something about stealing a cat out of an illegal research facility both of you were trapped in that makes you like it, simple as that. That’s the short version of the story of how they adopted a cat even though they are technically still on the run.

On the run is a pretty loose term, since, as of now, they even have a (secret and FBI-protected, but nonetheless) apartment. Compared to the last five years, they are pretty safe right now—maybe not as save as they’ll ever be, not yet, but considerably safer than just a few months ago. Not quite safe enough that Shinichi could go back to his actual real identity and his actual real life. Not yet.

That is what he is hoping on though, as soon as all the loose threads are collected and, more importantly, convicted. As soon as everything gets out.

But, as of right now, he is a small boy with a silicon mask on his face that is looking for a cat.

He doesn’t find the cat. Not that day.

Bringing down a criminal syndicate, as it turns out, includes a lot of waiting time. It’s weird, but now, now that he has prove, now that he has done this, they actually don’t want him to finish it up.

“You’re a civilian, Kudou-kun”, Megure tells him, “You need to let law enforcement work it’s way through.”

Shinichi sighs, but only so he doesn’t scream. He hasn’t been a civilian for ages and that is his case, dammit. But he knows the only reason Megure is telling him this is that his higher ups know that Shinichi knows him, that Shinichi trusts him.

The problem with not being able to help, or at least, not being able to help all of the time, is that Shinichi has free time now, and after four years of constantly switching between running from and towards criminals, he doesn’t really know what to do with that.

It gives him too much time to think. Too much time to regret. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it’s Haibara’s turn to be the adult of the family for this week. This way, he can’t go and do anything impulsive. Stupid, as Haibara would put it.

Instead, he looks for the cat.

It doesn’t seem to be in the immediate surroundings anymore, or at least if it is, Shinichi can’t find it. So, he does the obvious thing and makes posters. They are probably not the most effective, since, due to a total lack of pictures (“Pictures are dangerous.”, Haibara says at the back of his mind, along with his own general paranoia) he has to rely on descriptions.

Megure also gives him an exceptionally weird look when he asks him to print them at the department, but Shinichi really has endured worse. Also, if Haibara worries less about the cat, things are going to get done sooner.

He still doesn’t find the cat.

He begins asking people, children, old couples at the park, store owners. It’s risky. They might remember him and tell someone else about him, but on the other hand, he is a little kid and wearing a disguise, so there is a pretty low chance anyone could trace this back to him. But he doesn’t dare asking any of his neighbors either—better when they don’t know anything.

After a few days he’s not all to hopeful. It makes him sad in a way he doesn’t expect. He had never really thought he’d keep the cat, not even in the best possible outcome, the one that seems so close that the hope is killing him every time he thinks about it (so, pretty much all the time).

It was always going to be Haibara’s cat. But still. It was an act of being to hopeful, of trusting this to work. Relying on a future. And now the cat is gone.

Haibara is going to flip her lid, he thinks, but then he thinks better of it. If he has realised the cat is gone, Haibara’s probably known it for a while. She tends to hope less than he does.

He still doesn’t want to say it to her face.

He sighs. In front of him there’s a news parlour selling proper newspapers along with trashy gossip magazines. Shinichi steps closer and asks the boy behind the counter about the cat.

The employee leans down to him and tells him that, sadly, he hasn’t seen the cat. As he promises that he will keep an eye open, Shinichi realises that the guy is younger than him. Not younger than physical-him, of course, but still. The thought gives him a chill.

He distracts him by gazing over the shiny covers in front of him and immediately does a double take. On the cover—it’s Ran.

Its not new, not really. Ever since the band took off—Ran, Kazuha and that other girl he doesn’t actually know, Nakamori-san, Inspector Nakamori’s daughter—they’ve been in and out of celebrity gossip. Nothing particularly nasty that he heard of—but his access to news hasn’t really been all that regular at times. Also, he doesn’t want Haibara to know he’s paying attention to it—he knows her well enough to know it would only make her feel bad. But she probably knows anyway. They’ve learned to know each other way to well.

“Cuteness Explosion! Gosho Girls’ Ran-chan charms fans with new cat!”, the headline reads.

The picture has Ran posing, smiling slightly, friendlily, Shinichi with an obviously very satisfied black cat in her lap. It seems to have been taken from her social media and Shinichi wonders who took it. Maybe Uncle Kogoro or Sonoko or another one of her friends.

Maybe she has a secret boyfriend somewhere, he thinks, one the media doesn’t know about yet. He almost wishes for it, except he doesn’t, because he just isn’t that good of a person and he wants to be her secret boyfriend from back in high school forever. Well, but he also isn’t really delusional enough to hold out for that, so…

He looks at the picture again, only now really paying attention to the cat. But—How is this possible? Shinichi shakes his head and looks again. Maybe he is wrong. There are plenty of black cats around. He glosses through the article to find out more.

“According to Ran-chan, she found Maki-chan on her balcony…”

So apparently Ran found the cat, had tried to look for a former owner, but since it was neither chipped nor had a collar, she had ultimately been allowed to keep it. Of course Hime isn’t chipped. They can’t go around disclosing their location like that.

Shinichi sighs. Then he tries to look at the picture from another angle. Is it really Hime? Maybe he is paranoid.

Scratch that, he knows he’s paranoid. But this is ridiculous.

Well, there isn’t a lot he can do now. He buys the magazine.

Haibara is still in her lab when he comes back to the apartment.

“I’m back!”, he yells, and she answers with an affirmative.

He steps towards her and leans into the doorframe of the lab. He knows for a fact that Haibara hasn’t left the apartment in almost a week. She never does, when she is tall, too scared of being recognised.

“Any news, Kudou-kun?”

She seems almost cheerful. Maybe the research is going well.

“So…”, Shinichi starts, “I might have found the cat.”

She turns back to him, clearly surprised, but also weary. He was right, then, she didn’t expect him to find it anymore.

“But?”, Haibara presses.

“I might just be crazy.”

“Well, that’s certainly not news.”, Haibara huffs. She rotates her open palm in the air, a sign for him to just say it already.

“Look at this.”

He opens the magazine at the right page for her, but she flips back to the front.

“A gossip magazine.”, she says. Then she looks closer. “About Mouri-san.”

She looks at him. This is what Shinichi wanted to avoid.

“You know, whatever it says is probably not even-“, she starts, quickly.

“No, just look at the picture.”

Shinichi opens the correct page again and points at the cat. He doesn’t want to hear her advice. Not now. Really, he doesn’t want to need it.

“Am I crazy, or… Tell me I’m crazy.”, he says instead.

“You’re crazy.”, Haibara complies, but he can see her eyes widen at the image.

“That’s Hime-chan.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well yeah. That’s what you meant, right?” Her suspicious look is back, even though this is precisely the reason Shinichi bought the damn magazine.

He nods. “It doesn’t make any sense though, she doesn’t even live near here…”

“How do you know that?”, Haibara asks, flatly.

“Well, they put us far away from anyone who could have recognised us, remember? Also, she would probably have heard about Hime missing if she was near, especially if she asked around.”

Haibara shrugs “I guess Hime-chan is really good at running far away.” She pauses. “It’s probably for the best she is.”

Shinichi thinks of the last place all of them ran from and finds himself agreeing. “So, what are we going to do?”

Haibara shrugs again. “What can we do? At least we know Mouri-san is a good person. It’s better than Hime-chan just being a stray.”

Shinichi nods. Even though he found the cat, in a way, he feels defeated. And tired. So, so tired. He sighs, closes his eyes and concentrates on not falling apart. He’s gotten good at it, but it’s harder in quiet moments.

“Oi, Haibara!”, he calls back, “I’m gonna make some food.”

Haibara gestures him to go ahead. She’s right. There’s nothing to do but to hold out. Just a little longer.

“She really is cute.”, Aoko sighs.

Ran nods and pets her cat over the head. “Maki-chan.”

“Maki like true hope?”, Aoko asks.

“Maki like true hope.”, Ran confirms. “I’ve always had a thing for hope.”

——–

So this could be seen as sort of the other side to my story for the heart break prompt. (Still not sure if I’m doing the genre thing right)

@mintchocolateleaves, @sup-poki

#DCMKEmogust2019 #shinran #girl band au #platonic coai #haibaraxcats #I mean this could be fluff #but like #angsty fluff #nevermind #that's not how it works #i think

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sentofighta · 5 years

Note

Send ❤️ for a romantic kiss winks u know who

Send a Heart for a Specific Kiss! | accepting | @crownofsmiles

Send ❤️ for a romantic kiss.

This is ridiculous. He had to send three soldiers to jail because they kept bothering him about what will he do with his wife on this so-called Valentine’s day. They should be thankful he did not shoot them.

But..they are kind of right. Ugh, a year ago he didn’t even know about these bloody damned days and now everyone keeps reminding him of them. How irritating…if showing his love is only limited to these days then he rather not love or be loved. Thankfully, he knows that sora is not like that type. However, she is still a girl who er definitely wants to be…reminded that she exists in his life now that they are married (or forced to in a way.) Einar was not that of a jerk to deprive her of love and affection but he did his best to provide within his capacity. True within his limit meant a casual head pat here and there but in his defense, he is learning! Slowly, but surely, he is grasping how to be a proper partner and a husband even if that certainly (even if she does not say it) has bothered and frustrated the girl. Even Gustav pointed out that numerous times how sad Sora looked some times; a trapped bird would still get more attention than her.

You could say being a captain has its perks which he returned home rather earlier than usual. But before that, he swung by the greenhouse that he built years ago to check on the roses and flowers there then went back home. He didn’t bring anything because he struggled to walk into a shop to buy anything, even something small for her but he couldn’t.

As usual, she greeted him with a smile, which as usual, too was hard for him to look at her face. He nodded and walked into his room to change his clothes but he sat on the couch and let out a frustrated groan. Why is it so hard to approach her? He thought he could squeeze ‘i love you’ somehow but it stuck in his throat and just nod and left her standing there. God! How awful! How can she tolerate him!? He can’t tolerate himself if he was in her shoes! How hard is it to express his ….l…love…for her? True, he …realized his feelings after a while because he was unsure how he…saw her. Sister, suspect, hostage, enemy……lover…..wife…what is she for him? Sora has been honest since day one yet all he did was pushing her away with.

Clasped hands against his mouth, he breathed in and out, trying to recollect his thoughts. That’s it, he is stepping out of his comfort zone; for her sake–for their sake. If he expects this agreement to continue, then he got to show his efforts. He told her he is going to learn but till now she has yet to see any fruits of that so-called learning. First thing first, change his clothes because this is a special occasion and who would do something romantic in his work clothes?

Now that he wore something better, he stepped out of the room, crystal eyes looking for her but he didn’t see her sitting outside so she is in the kitchen? He went and she was there, most likely preparing something since he came early. That’s it…he…can do that. He closed his eyes, took a breath and then walked towards her.

“Sora,” he tried to get her attention. “Can you come with me…now?” She said it is ok but the food. “It is ok. It won’t be long,” she said it is ok then and went to grab her coat as he went ahead and waited for her outside. When she exited the house, he offered his left hand for her to take which did surprise her since he does not do that, most of the time. nonetheless, she was happy to take hold of his hand and he guided her to where he kept the greenhouse. He does not know why he has yet to tell her about it. Maybe because he was embarrassed since clearly, he did not give the impression that he has one and can actually take care of helpless plants. She would be surprised to know that he made this to remember her. She had such a huge influence on his life when he was in the facility and without her, he probably would not have recovered.

In front of the small greenhouse, Einar’s cheeks were visibly getting little more color than their pale complexion. Sora tugged on his hand in confusion. “You see… I … I made this. You know it is hard for plants, let alone flowers to bloom here so…I wanted to have something that– anyway, look inside.” ergh! he was so close but he couldn’t tell her! At least, he brought her right? Sora saw the roses and found herself speechless.

Her reaction was to be expected. “Sora,” this is not over. He said nothing to tell her personally his feelings. Einar carefully took her hands in his, making sure she is now looking at him directly, “I love you.” Once he said that, his mind waited for no reaction out of her and demanded a follow-up act, thus he leaned and pressed his lips against hers. One might point that he acts like a schoolgirl more than a grown-up man because he quickly closed his eyes and refused to open them during their kiss. This is how a romantic kiss…is supposed to be right?

When he pulled away, Sora’s face was definitely red but he couldn’t grasp what sort of emotion other than being surprised she felt. Oh, great. He screwed this up, didn’t he? Was his, lame-attempted-kiss a failure? He felt so ridiculous. This was not his thing, why did even try? But his surprise, Sora started laughing saying how adorable he looked but she demands a better kiss were she can enjoy it.

“–huh? B-better…?” his facial expression froze because that WAS his best. That was one of the blue screen moments because he summoned his courage for that kiss and now she demands another!?

“…heh…heh…cheeky,” something about this made his chest feel a little bit lighter and less tighten. “You are not going to give me a break from this, huh?” he owes it to her for a better kiss, right? His shoulders relaxed a bit (better than he how he was a moment ago) and stepped close, his left hand gently left her chin up while his right arm wrapped carefully around her waist to bring her close to him then kissed her again. This time, he managed to keep his eyes open to stare into her eyes for a bit. He’ll ask her later if this was a better kiss.

#crownofsmiles #⌈⌈ic. (einar)#⌈⌈answer. (einar)#⌈⌈you make me alive again. (𝖼𝗋𝗈𝗐𝗇𝗈𝖿𝗌𝗆𝗂𝗅𝖾𝗌)#//yEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSS #//I..LOVE...THEM..........HNNNNNNNNNNNNNG #//ein struggling. sora: excuse me kiss me again. ein!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?i POWEREDUP THRU THAT OMG I CANT---

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crushedbyhyperbole · 5 years

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Moondrops - Chapter Eight

Have you read chapter seven?

The Blind and The Belligerent

Kitty sat by the fire, staring. Maya could tell she was exhausted. Their short passage through The Fridge had been eventful, and scary, if Maya was at all truthful with herself. The monks of The Order were ill-equipped to deal with the creatures that lived there and had relied heavily on the young siren to clear their path. Maya had tried to help the girl, but she was stubborn and petty, failing to see that Maya’s only interest in this was her own survival. It was reason enough to trust the help offered in a time of crisis.

They’d made it to the transit point that lead to The Outwash and passed through. Maya knew where they were. She’d never been this far but she’d seen it listed in Krieg’s echo – he’d been here. She hoped he survived the attack at The Four Winds. Kitty had been forthcoming in telling Maya that she’d zapped him with her ability, and as far as she could tell, it was strong enough to kill an average man. But Krieg was far from average. He was huge, strong and very good at ignoring injuries. Hell, if Hyperion couldn’t destroy him then what chance did a young slip of a girl have?

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Kitty spat bitterly.

Maya came to her senses. She hadn’t realised she’d been staring back. In the growing gloom tiredness was seeping into her bones and it was easy to lose focus, to zone out. The collar around her neck made her brain fizz like a can of soda, bubbles trapped inside, tickling around the inside of her skull. She couldn’t sleep even if she wanted to.

Night fell completely. They waited in the warm glow as, two at a time, the group arrived this side of the jump gate from The Fridge. Sophis had been cautious about how they travelled. It was wise not to be too splashy in lands like these, Hyperion weren’t the only big bad out there, and they certainly weren’t the worst. Once they were all assembled Sophis sent the signal.

Maya watched as the giant H in the sky fired up it’s central cannon. Everything from aid and equipment to giant mortars and battalions of troops could be sent via moonshot. She’d heard their plan, seen the maps, she knew where she was going but she didn’t think Sophis saw the flaw in his plan.

“Jack won’t give me up, you know.” She said quietly as she sat hugging her knees. “And the girl, he’ll take us both.” Maya glanced at Kitty who was now curled up on her side, fast asleep, along with most of the party.

“I have his word.” Sophis considered her a moment before turning back to his map.

“Sirens and vaults.” She dug her heel in the dirt absently. “The man is obsessed, and he won’t rest until he’s opened them all.”

“You think that’s the favour he wants? To open his vault?”

“I think he wants me to charge the key, all of the keys, if I survive the process.” Honesty was her best policy here. Sophis wanted to take her back to Athenas but Jack would drain her dry and throw away what was left. She knew what one she preferred.

“Eridium charges the keys, he has plenty.” He dismissed her with a flick of his hand.

“Eridium is the catalyst, the source of a Pandorean siren’s power.” She had to make him understand.

“But you’ve never been exposed to it until you came here.”

“Exactly!” She shuffled forward, fixing him with an intense look. She hoped she could convey that she was genuinely scared of what Jack could and would do to her. “Imagine a siren who didn’t need Eridium to use her power. Imagine how much more powerful she’d be if she reacted to it as sensitively as I do. Now imagine two of us.”

“What are you saying?” He crouched close, invested in her words.

“I don’t get my power from Eridium but I feel it all around me. It’s in the ground, the air, and every living thing exposed to its radiation. I’m so much stronger here than I was back on Athenas, Sophis. So much stronger.” Her eyes gleamed with tears not yet fallen. “You’re about to deliver him two sirens, Sophis. Kitty and me. Once he sees her, he’ll take her too. She’s so young.”

The tear that slipped her lashes dropped hot on her cheek then began to chill. She was scared for herself but also for Kitty, bitchy and angry as she was. She cried because she was helpless, cried because she was alone again, and cried for the life she wanted but would never have.

Sophis seemed to consider her words, his eyes flickering as though the visuals of all she’d said were playing in his head.

“There are other ways off Pandora. I don’t want to die in one of Jack’s facilities, Sophis. I’ll help you get us home.” She practically begged him with her tone.

“You always did have me wrapped around your little finger.” He smiled wistfully. “But not anymore.”

Sophis raised the control for her collar, ready to zap her into darkness when the loud THUNK sound heralded the moonshot’s penetration of the atmosphere, then the ground-shaking boom of its landing. Four more, just like the first, landed at the bottom of the steep hill where they’d made camp.

Maya sighed. Relief, no matter how short-lived, was relief nonetheless.

After the first moonshot the whole camp scrambled to life. It was still dark, and would be for another few hours, but the monks began packing up and gathering themselves together. They sent a scout party to check the landing area for bandits and creatures, clearing out what they could they sent for the rest. It took them a little while to mobilise what with their wounded and all, but by the time the first rays of the first sunrise brightened the sky they were all packed into the armoured trucks and ready to go.

Maya though of Krieg. He loved to watch the stars. Would he have sat on some high precipice in the abandoned wastes, looking at the true night of Pandora, and wondered if she saw them too?

Continue to Chapter Nine >>>

#borderlands2 #borderlands 2 #borderlands fanfiction #krieg/maya #moondrops #maya the siren #krieg the psycho #maya is kidnapped #the order of the impending storm #sophis #other sirens #borderlands fanfic #borderlands 2 fanfic #krieg fanfic #Maya fanfic #cloudy's writing

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heroesarelife · 7 years

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Chapter 170

How wholesome was that! I loved it to pieces! Horikoshi is really good at creating moods. Not much to say about it, but I just wanted to leave it registered some things.

- Mirio is suspended from UA, most likely because he has no quirk anymore. I was expecting something like this to happen, so this is not surprising. I wonder if he will eventually leave UA to go to a normal school or be transferred to another course, such as gen. ed. or business. I reckon UA wants to keep an eye on him and keep him close, partially for security reasons (they don’t want this boy going rampage), and/or because if there’s a way to get his quirk back he will be close. It can also be that if the information gets out that one of their students lost a quirk and it reaches the media, hell will break loose. Seems a bit like damage control, if you ask me.

- So I expected to see more of Mirio in the next chapters, especially with they agreeing to take Eri to the cultural festival. It’s good to see that Horikoshi is not simply putting this character aside completely, which some mangakas would have done (the “oh, arc is over? let’s move on!” mentality).

- Isn’t it interesting that the first person Aizawa consults about Eri being allowed to go to the festival is Nedzu? Of course he would need to either way, since she’s a high risk subject (someone who can kill and erase quirks, in a school full of underaged promising future heroes and prospective professionals). But I wonder exactly how Nedzu is involved in the whole situation, since I would have expected Aizawa to also consult the police/whoever is in charge, but he only cites Nedzu. We do know that the principal is also a hero, so he might be more involved in this than simply just being the principal of the school. Either way, we need more info on Nedzu, that’s for sure.

- I WAS WONDERING what Tokoyami was doing on the supplementary lessons. And then I found that that Horikoshi has low-key placed Tokoyami on a internship as well. This has been hinted before, during a dialog with Kirishima. I had completely forgotten. I wonder who he has been interning with.

- Confirmation that Aizawa has been going to see Eri everyday. Maybe we will get our literal dadzawa in canon after all (but this might just be my wishful thinking, don’t mind me)

- Eri is going to be transferred somewhere. That place is probably not UA (catch me in the corner sobbing while clutching the fragments of my dadzawa dreams to my chest). It makes sense that they are doing that, since she can’t stay in the hospital forever, and they probably need to start on understanding her quirk better and helping her control it. Having a safe facility to do so makes perfect sense. I do wonder if she’s not falling from a dark trap into a slightly less darker trap (but still a trap nonetheless). The system sucks, y’all. They will study her, that is certain, it will just be more veiled.

- Acknowledging she’s not saved yet was so smart and serves to show how good Horikoshi is in dealing with his plotlines and characters. Midoriya recognized it fast and already started taking small steps to help her accordingly. He and Mirio are so precious.

- I do have to comment that Eri has actual scars on her arms, poor child. Different from Izuku’s (and most chars with scars we’ve seen so far), her scars were not acquired by choice, and they hold a very different meaning. Horikoshi uses scars as symbols often and in different ways in the series, which is wonderfully done.

- Additionally, Eri’s quirk’s power is dependent on the size of her horn? What is this I smell? Is it- ah! Limitation. I hope anyone that claimed her quirk was a plot master key will swallow their words now.

- I am very surprised we haven’t yet seen any interaction between Midoriya and All Might, especially since Izuku offered OfA to Mirio. This should come about at some point, you just wait and see.

Hey I do a lot of these, check it out /o/

Like what you see? Buy us a coffee if you fancy <3 or commission

#bnha #bnha meta #meta #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #mha #manga spoilers #bnha spoilers #chapter 170 #not a request #bnha chatter #amethyst

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sciencespies · 3 years

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Op-ed | Can we backhaul our way to space?

https://sciencespies.com/space/op-ed-can-we-backhaul-our-way-to-space/

Op-ed | Can we backhaul our way to space?

If the market grows large enough, a dedicated lunar-to-LEO tanker industry could evolve

Trade. It enables, disseminates, and helps pay for new technologies and skills. It encourages sciences, the arts, and communications across oceans and cultures. It is a requirement for the evolution and supply of settlements and cities. Like technology and physical expansion, trade is a defining characteristic of humanity. It is impossible to overstate its importance in human history and development.

So, how do we get trade, and all of its ancillary benefits, started on the new frontier of space? After finding things to trade – like lunar or Martian scientific knowledge or lunar water – trade is most likely encouraged by making both the upfront and ongoing costs of space transportation and operations as low as possible. That requires the most efficient possible use of whatever transportation is available. One way to increase efficiency is to employ a concept the trucking industry calls‚“backhaul.”

The administration of Donald Trump challenged NASA to aggressively return astronauts to Earth’s moon, and to prepare for going on to Mars. President Joe Biden’s administration appears to support continuation of that vision. A young administration confronted with a Congress precisely balanced between bitterly fighting political parties is unlikely to want to spend its limited political capital squabbling over space policy. That encourages continuity.

There also seems to be a new sense of reality at NASA. While senators appear to have headed off any attempt to cancel NASA’s vastly late and over-budget Saturn 5-class Space Launch System and freeing the resources it consumes for more useful purposes, NASA is doing what it can to minimize the SLS’s lost opportunity costs. Payloads that Congress baselined for the SLS have been moved to cheaper commercial rockets. NASA picked SpaceX’s largely self-funded, Starship-based lander for the Human Landing System. Boeing has been strongly urged to improve their dismal performance managing SLS — though there is little sign of that actually happening. Nonetheless, it is becoming possible to believe that a “lunar gateway” station, and maybe even early visits to the lunar surface, could actually occur – if not by 2024, at least within the decade of the 2020s.

In an early, lunar transportation architecture dependent on the expendable SLS, the astronaut capsule alone will return to Earth — usually with a small amount of spare volume and mass. Later when reusable spacecraft ply between Earth and her moon, and supplies are transported in one direction, empty or partially filled vehicles will return to be used again. Since the empty vehicles produce no value beyond returning for reuse, anything that allows space on them to be used or sold is a net gain for the transportation provider. In the trucking industry, goods “backhauled” in this way often pay extraordinarily low rates, subsidized by the primary purpose of moving the outbound goods. Crucially, the outbound cargo can be totally unrelated to the inbound backhaul.

Early first-generation vehicles will be severely constrained in both volume and mass, but even then backhaul may be relevant. Returning crew capsules could carry small items stored “under the seats.” These might include lunar samples desired by companies or scientists, or even wealthy individuals, in addition to those wanted by NASA. Low-mass ornaments or jewelry, like glass beads from ancient lunar volcanic “fire fountains” and other collectible mineral grains, whose value comes solely from their being obtained on Earth’s moon, are possible high-value items. Possible rare, high-value heavy elements or rare-earth elements collected from asteroid impact sites could be used in orbit or on Earth.

Tiny but abrasive and chemically reactive lunar dust particles can damage equipment and human lungs, so all samples need to be properly stored in sealed containers. After arrival on Earth, they must be cleaned before distribution to nonscientists.

Later, if second-generation lunar crew transportation vehicles were reusable, backhaul opportunities become much more attractive. After dropping crew and supplies off at a lunar base, cislunar supply vehicles would return empty, or with smaller return cargoes, to low Earth orbit or elsewhere in cislunar space. At that time, backhaul might become a real market.

The International Space Station and future semi-commercial stations, Lunar Gateway, applications satellites, and other activities in cislunar space need water and oxygen for propulsion, drinking, and breathing – both of which are readily available on Earth’s moon without having to lift them from Earth’s surface. Oxygen can be derived from oxidized surface rocks available in many locations, not only from polar water deposits. Water, because it is useful or necessary for so many things in so many places, has been called the “oil” of the solar system.

If NASA were to establish a science base on Earth’s moon, lunar water or oxygen might be backhauled for use at the cislunar facilities. If the market grows large enough, a dedicated lunar-to-LEO tanker industry could evolve – which might never happen if the infrastructure for supplying space facilities with lunar water had to be paid for up front and from scratch, before any water was delivered.

Backhaul allows trade to start small, possibly very small, early on while transportation infrastructure is still rudimentary. That could increase early income from lunar activities, amortizing some of the costs and encouraging growth, leading to earlier development of largescale commercial or semi-commercial industrial stations or orbital tourist facilities. Costs could be spread over multiple activities, in this case both science and commerce.

Similar ideas for incremental development are not new. Companies developing a new technology often take an incremental approach, earning money on partial solutions while developing their better mouse traps. SpaceX was able to parlay testing retro-propulsion deceleration technologies needed for their Falcon 9 reusable first stage —using rocket engine plumes to protect the vehicle during reentry — by trading test data useful for potential Mars missions with NASA.

The space agency flew aircraft with advanced thermal imaging sensors to observe reentering test vehicles paid for by SpaceX, and shared the results. NASA got data it could not otherwise afford while SpaceX got the data they needed to perfect firststage reentry without having to fly their own sensors.

Later, SpaceX went a step further. The company tested reusing Falcon 9 first stages while launching operational satellites for paying customers. The test could take place after the first stage had completed its operational mission of delivering the second stage and payload to the needed trajectory. The customer paid for the launch — presumably at a somewhat reduced price to accept the risk of flying with experimental hardware on board — while SpaceX got their test data without having to pay for a dedicated test launch.

The advent of a new partially commercialized lunar strategy is exciting, but it remains true that no lunar base is likely in the immediate future. That means no returning vehicles with excess capacity to sell cheap.

So, let’s look closer to home. There are already operational flights that could offer backhaul opportunities. Right now, there are three vehicles delivering crew or cargo to the ISS and returning to Earth: the Russian Soyuz, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, and the SpaceX Cargo Dragon. Soon the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser will join the mix. Returning Soyuz and other returning crew vehicles have little excess capacity. Dragon Cargo is another story.

Dragon Cargo can return 3,000 kg in 10 cubic meters from the ISS. Because of various constraints like available volume and operational needs, Dragons usually do not return with their full theoretical capacity in cargo. On most return missions, small amounts of space could probably be found for backhaul. Soon, Dream Chaser will also return with substantial cargo capacity.

So, what might we backhaul from the International Space Station?

A company called Made In Space is deploying a series of ever-improving 3D printers to the station. Currently, these are used experimentally to make tools and parts needed on the station.

It is not hard to imagine using excess capacity or a second machine to print small novelty items for export to Earth on returning crew or cargo capsules. Such items might be quite valuable to those interested in space exploration, or in owning something truly unique. If backhaul costs were low enough, and especially if the prospective objects incorporated some property that could only be made in space, the market could be significant. If one entrepreneur makes a profit, others will follow, each with their own take. Some might even invent something useful that cannot be made on Earth.

While NASA has traditionally been resistant to using publicly owned infrastructure for profit-making businesses seen as frivolous, attitudes are changing. The Russians have fewer qualms, and one module already is privately owned and rented by NASA. Further private modules are planned for the very near future. If someone wanted to start a small business that used backhaul to get its products to Earth, they could probably find a way to do it, especially if production could be automated and not use valuable astronaut time.

If a few small businesses succeed, they could grow. At some point, volume might grow high enough for a consortium to purchase full-priced transportation to Earth. At that point, a mature industry will have arrived, and a trading economy will be firmly established.

Trade will have achieved yet another breakthrough for humanity — helping to pay for our expansion into the final frontier.

Donald F. Robertson is a freelance space industry journalist based in San Francisco. Follow him at @DonaldFR.

This article originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

#Space

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avesagittarius · 7 years

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lost mal-evolence // 7

WORD COUNT // 2011

summary ! The youngest of the Maximoff siblings had lived through heartbreak twice now. First her parent’s death and then her older sibling’s abandonment. She did not know what she had done wrong, only that she searched for them for 3 years before HYDRA recruited her. She joined them when she learnt Pietro and Wanda had came here after leaving her. Now 6 years after their departure, she was in the process of becoming HYDRA’s best asset ever.

an ! heyyyy i promised it tonight soo here it is !!! sorry it’s not the most interesting chapter but it felt necessary to me. PLEASE SEND FEEDBACK ITS ALWAYS NICE

part one part dos part tres part quatro part cinco part seis

A few hours had passed, the Avengers were now flying over Russia and headed directly for the Siberian Compound. The fight hadn’t even started, yet they all seemed exhausted.

In fact, they knew this wouldn’t go down easy, they would go home injured and there was a possibility one of them could end up dead. Because if this wasn’t a mission like the others, it just made the risk greater.

It was a rescue mission. Only a few of the members had already been on one.

Sure, they knew how to fight, how to take down an enemy, how to deal with the deaths of civilians but it was never easy. It took a great deal of courage to know what to do in such difficult situations like battles.

But here, they were risking more than the deaths of a few men. They knew they didn’t have a choice but to succeed, this mission had to be a victory.

If they failed, that either meant Hydra would have spotted them and it ended up in a blood bath or that the girl wasn’t there, or dead, or didn’t want to come back to New York with them.

Either way they knew it was a risky situation as they couldn’t be seen by Hydra’s agents. In fact, if they were located it would most probably lead to a war between the two associations. Something they did not want.

The atmosphere inside the quinjet was tense, and dreadful.

Pietro and Wanda hadn’t said a word since the take off and it worried Steve. He was worried they weren’t going to follow his instructions and made the whole plan blow up.

To say the situation was delicate for the Maximoffs was an understatement.

First, they learnt that their little sister is in fact alive, then that she is undergoing the same torture they had been put through when they couldn’t see past their blind anger for Tony Stark.

Now they were walking, well more like flying, straight back into the trap they had fallen into many years ago to try and save their precious Amalya.

But everything was different now.

They were on Tony’s side, they had powers and a team to support them but most of all, they didn’t know what the hell they could expect from this family reunion.

Pietro looked at his sister when he felt her stare from the other side of the jet. Knowing she was in his head right now he shook his head to tell her to get out.

She sent him a knowing look saying, ‘stop feeling guilty’, he knew what her eyes were telling him because they knew each other so well.

After all, they had grown up together and they were twins. That thought made him loath himself even more because he knew that when he was going to see his baby sister. He wouldn’t recognize her, he wouldn’t know what to do or what to say that could make up for their absence.

Seeing as everyone seemed lost in thought, Steve got up from his seat and spoke up in a strong voice like the leader he was.

“Everyone remembers the plan, right ?”

Sam rolled his eyes and Natasha said what everyone was thinking at that moment.

“Rogers we’ve went over this plan at least fifty-six times now if anyone hasn’t understood yet I don’t know what the hell they are doing on this team” She sighed and Steve looked taken aback as he was ready to explain it once more.

Bruce interrupted them, speaking up from the head of the plane “And we are arriving”

Tony excitedly jumped from his seat and put his mask down, he was rather joyous considering the situation that they were in and what they were about to face.

“Alright, well kids, it’s time for Iron Man to fly out”

On his toes, Sam stood up and followed him but not before flashing the rest of team a smirk “See you guys”

And just like that, they jumped from the quinjet.

Although everyone knew they had only been gone for 15 minutes and they were only going to see how many guards and stuff Hydra has displayed around the facility, Bucky couldn’t help but let his nerves get to him.

He kept running his hands through his brown locks, trying to get his shit together before they had to enter the building.

Bucky was trying so hard to keep his thoughts to himself, but he knew Wanda was probably aware of what was going on in his mind. As usual she was probably just worried but it unnerved him that someone could so easily tell what he was feeling.

Nonetheless, it didn’t surprise him when he felt a rather small hand on his shoulder. Wanda’s presence felt reassuring.

He knew she was way younger than he was but she still had that sort of motherly figure which made him strangely relax. He knew she was only trying to help him calm down.

Thing is, he didn’t really know why he was so nervous.

Wanda didn’t need to say a word, she didn’t want him so worked up over the smallest things.

Her long hair was held up in a ponytail and her red eyes were on full display as she was trying to help Bucky.

However, the calm tension in the space was brutally interrupted when Sam and Tony slammed their feet on the jet’s ground.

The loud clang of hitting metal shook most of the teammates of their dazes.

Immediately, Steve approached them.

“So?”

Sam was the first to speak. If he didn’t know how to feel about this mission before, he sure was even more confused now. What would happen now ?

“Nothing, I mean, nobody” He looked as if he was struggling to find the right words, leaving the Avengers in a oppressive suspense.

“Well what do you mean ?” Intervened Wanda who was now standing next to Captain America and desperately trying to understand the situation. Her eyes, which were back to their usual green color, were swirling with various emotions too difficult for Sam to interpret.

He knew that it was hard for the twins, but whatever their sister had gone through, he knew they probably weren’t ready to face her after so many years.

Seeing as Sam wasn’t responding, Tony took three steps and placed himself in the center of the jet. His serious look showed that things weren’t as good as he thought they would have been.

“What he means is that the thermic scan shows so few people I wonder if we’re even at the right, which I know we are because I help Bruce get us here.” He sighed and continued.

“Either they’ve taken her on a mission or something like the videos we’ve seen, or they have discovered that we’re onto them and moved somewhere else”

The tension was growing thicker by the second as every single Avenger was thinking about what could have led to such a bad start for a mission that was this important.

“But by few people what do you mean ?” Bucky couldn’t bear to think that they had waited so long before going saving the young girl and the only result they were getting was a failure.

Now it was Sam’s turn to advance more into the room. The eyes of the people moved onto him and he spoke.

“Simple, there are like twenty people in there, and they’re not guards”

“So who are they?” Pietro was getting impatient, he wanted to run and punch some Hydra agents all the while saving his sister not stand in this quinjet all day debating on who’s in there.

“We know they’re not guards cause it looked like they were in some kind of meeting room, they formed a circle. If there are any guards, there aren’t a lot of them”

Steve ran his hand down his face.

He thought they had everything planned and here they were, not even knowing how many people were in that damned building.

“Bruce put us down please”

“What?”

“Steve no!”

Before all hell broke loose in this jet, Steve shushed his colleagues.

“I know I told you all how important it was for us not to be seen but I fear we don’t have a choice here. If we want to understand the situation and act consequently then we have to go in there”

His strong voice seemed to resonate through the space and it didn’t hold the same despair his eyes were partly showing.

He knew his instructions were going right up against the ones he had kept on pronouncing these past few days, but if he was going to be the leader of the group in times of need, then he had to act upon that role.

Now wasn’t the time for him to show weakness or defeat, not when his teammates were just as lost as he was when it came to know what to do right now.

So, he took matters into his own hands and when the jet landed with a big thud in the snow, he stepped towards the opening gate and motivated the rest of his team.

Since the ‘Civil War’ Tony was always doubtful when it came to letting Steve make all the decisions.

Of course, he didn’t make all of them.

Tony had the better ideas most of the time, who was he kidding.

But right now, he had to admit that he didn’t know what to himself. When Steve decided they had to go and see in order to understand, he wanted so badly to do as usual and defy his teammate, but surprisingly he had been at a loss of words.

He didn’t have any better plan in mind.

So here he was now, flying ahead of the rest of the team to try and get a better look at what was happening in that compound.

Suddenly a flash of silver flew right past him and almost made him lose his balance.

“Quicksilver, a heads up would have been nice” he grumbled into his suit.

Pietro just chuckled and pushed faster, sometimes he was glad he had those powers. Right now, for example, he would be the first to arrive.

Except when he did arrive, he stopped running all at once.

Like one millisecond he was at full speed and the next he stilled.

Leaving a mark in the snow where he skidded a few moments ago, Pietro was gaping at the scene in front of him.

Only when the others arrived, it’s safe to say that Pietro wasn’t the only on left completely speechless.

In front of them, laying in the white, cold duvet of the snow were at least 30 bodies.

Dead bodies.

If it weren’t for the dead men on the floor, the scenery would have been very majestic and beautiful. But it wasn’t.

Because the youngest Maximoff had walked through the doors of the compound and wreaked havoc on her way out.

The sound of the eerie silence was deafening, it was like the angel of death had stopped on Earth to let its chaos out.

Each Avenger could see them clearly. Their skin was now so pale it competed with the bright snow, their lips a blue so striking they would probably remember it forever, but most of all it wasn’t a bloody mess.

Everything was so clean, it looked untouched and pure.

It seemed unbelievable a 16-year-old could do that much damage by herself.

Slowly, carefully, they started walking towards the other side of the now deadly clearing, where the trees started to grow denser.

Slowly, almost so quietly as if they were scared Hydra’s agents would wake up in the following moments.

Tony spoke through the coms to the others.

It startled Pietro who accidentally stepped on a dead soldier’s foot.

“Based on Friday’s deduction skills, they were electrocuted through a 400 Volts electric power flow, in case anyone was still wondering, Mini Thor did cause this mess”

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