Oakside Forest was completely silent until the sounds of a young woman's scream and frantic running echoed through the air.
As the woman ran through the forest, a figure appeared and disappeared in the trees like a ghost. She continued to run for several more minutes before dropping to her knees in exhaustion and looking around in every direction for her pursuer, she started to back up slowly but was startled to feel herself bump into something behind her. She was certain that she did not stop near any trees, so this could only mean one thing…
She turned around slowly and looked up at the being standing before her, it towered over her at seven feet tall. The being had no face and appeared to be wearing a suit, its skin was devoid of color and completely pale. The woman could not run as it outstretched a hand to her head, by this point she was paralyzed with fear.
The woman could only watch as the pale hand touched her forehead, and the instant it did, a voice echoed through her mind, saying only one word: "Tag". The woman smiled and giggled as she held the hand to her cheek, "Alright babe, you caught me."
The Slenderman picked up the young human woman and held her bridal-style, "You know there's no point in trying to outrun me when I can teleport, right?"
The woman nuzzled in his arms "Well you didn't have to use your powers."
"Of course I had to, my beloved challenged me to a round of tag, I had to take it seriously."
"Slendy, I love you."
"Virginia, I love you too."
In an instant, the two of them had returned home via teleportation. Upon their return, the couple was greeted by a young but husky voice, "There you are, I've been waiting for you."
Slenderman turned quickly to see a shadowy figure sitting on the couch, he illuminated the room with purple fire from his fingertips, making the figure's white hoodie and gleaming knife visible. Slenderman quickly recognized who the figure was, "Jeff, I haven't seen you in a while, welcome back son."
Virginia smiled and quickly ran to her son to hug him tightly, "Jeff! I've missed you son, you should visit more often." Jeff stood up and smiled as he hugged his mother, "I promise I'll visit more often, don't worry mom." The moment after Jeff finished his sentence, everything began to shake as if an earthquake had occurred. Slenderman used his Allsight and discerned that no tectonic plates had scraped against each other, but he knew that a powerful explosion could cause shaking like that, he turned to his son and asked, "Jeff, what was that?"
"That's why I came here, Arkwood City is under attack."
"But why do you need my help?"
"Because the one who's attacking is Zalgo."
Jeff outstretched his arm and called his knife from the table to his hand, "Should I assemble the Proxies?"
"No, Zalgo is my burden and mine alone, I'll handle him myself." Slenderman turned to his wife and hugged her, "I'll be right back my love, this won't take long."
"I know, just-"
"I'll be safe, I promise"
Slenderman touched his forehead against Virginia's and she whispered, "I love you."
"I love you too."
In an instant, Slenderman teleported several kilometers from Oakside to Arkwood, and when he arrived, the city was in flames. Buildings were toppled and piles of ashes that used to be people were littered throughout the streets. Slenderman looked ahead, and standing atop a shattered building was his archenemy, Zalgo.
Zalgo quickly noticed Slenderman's presence and turned towards him, "Finally, I was wondering when you would show up."
"Zalgo, why must you annoy me so much?"
"Because you are in my way, I have direct orders from The Queen to destroy anyone in her way, and since I am unable to kill you, I can at least make you suffer."
"That's why you specifically attacked this city…"
"Exactly, if I wanted to, I could wipe out this whole solar system, but that defies the purpose of making you suffer. If I did, everything would die instantly, just like that, and that's no fun for me. I take pleasure in the simpler things, like watching a human scream as they die."
Zalgo fired a beam of red energy at Slenderman, but as it was about to connect, it curved around him and went straight for an injured teenage girl crawling out of a collapsed building. Slenderman quickly outstretched his arm and the energy suddenly stopped in mid-air just inches away from the girl's face before dissipating harmlessly into simple particles.
Slenderman turned back to Zalgo, officially out of patience, "Alright Zalgo, you wanted a fight, now you've got one, bring it!"
"With pleasure!"
Zalgo lunged full speed at Slenderman, but as soon as he did, Slenderman quickly raised his arm and grabbed Zalgo by the throat, "Not here." Slenderman teleported the both of them into deep space, far away from the solar system, before punching Zalgo full force in the face.
The blow was like a hypernova going off, planets light years away shook and stars were snuffed out by the shockwaves. Zalgo flew back and black blood spewed from his face, "That's what I'm talking about!" He flew back to Slenderman and uppercutted him full force, purple blood sprayed from his face. Slenderman began to get very annoyed, his fingers sharpened into claws and he slashed deep cuts into Zalgo's chest before stabbing right through him.
Zalgo blasted Slenderman back with a powerful blast of bright red chaos energy, the holes in his chest healed in mere moments. Slenderman outstretched his hand and pulled the very space itself where Zalgo stood towards him and grabbed his arm, he lowered the temperature of Zalgo's body down to Absolute Zero, causing his arm to fall off. Zalgo quickly regrew his arm and sent Slenderman flying with a punch.
Slenderman quickly teleported behind Zalgo, catching him by surprise before impaling him with several of his tendrils. Slenderman restrained Zalgo and pulled him close, "Goodbye brother." Slenderman touched his hand to Zalgo's chest and pulled apart every single atom in his body, disintegrating him, but deep down Slenderman knew that could not kill him, Zalgo would be back soon.
After Slenderman killed Zalgo he teleported back to the destroyed Arkwood City, "Alright, I should fix this now." Slenderman raised his arms and suddenly, the buildings began to repair themselves, lifting off the ground and pulling back together as all signs of damage disappeared. The piles of ashes littering the streets reformed back into shocked people, wondering how they were still alive. It took Slenderman a matter of thirty seconds to repair all damages caused by Zalgo.
Once the last building was repaired, Slenderman turned and was about to leave when he felt a petite hand tap him on the back and he heard a soft female voice, "Umm hello."
Slenderman turned back around and saw the girl that he had saved from Zalgo's beam just minutes before, "Hello little one, do you wish to speak to me?"
"Yes, I wanted to thank you for saving me back there."
"Oh it was no trouble at all, I must apologize for my brother's behavior, he...has a lot of issues."
"Yeah, I can see that."
Slenderman bowed politely and began to turn around, "I'm afraid I must go now, my family is waiting for me."
"Wait...I hear that you can give people powers, so they can help you protect others, and after seeing this whole city get wiped out, I want to help, I want to make sure something like this never happens again."
Slenderman turned back to the girl, knowing full well that he needed all the help he could get, "What is your name child?"
The girl smiled and outstretched her petite hand to introduce herself to the godlike being standing before her, "Jane, Jane Arkensaw"
Slenderman shook her hand and introduced himself as well, "It's a pleasure to meet you Jane, my name is Razion."
Slenderman looked around and saw that many people were looking around, this would not be a proper location for their important conversation, he looked down at Jane while still holding her hand, "We should discuss this somewhere else, one moment." Slenderman instantly teleported the two of them back to his upstate home.
Jane looked around confused, "What? We were just in Arkwood, but now we're somewhere else, what happened?"
"Teleportation, it's a rather fun ability. Now then, about you becoming a Proxy, are you sure about this? If you commit to this path, the road ahead will be dangerous, I will protect you to the best of my ability, however I will not always be there to bail you out, you will have to fight your own battles and put your life on the line to protect others, do you understand?"
Jane smiled and nodded, "I understand, after all, even without powers, life in this world is dangerous anyway, but I know how to take care of myself, and with your help I can take care of others."
Slenderman outstretched his pale hand and held Jane's petite hand gently, she noticed this time that his hand was soft, even though just minutes before this same hand was strong enough to choke out the being that destroyed her city. She smiled and blushed a little as she knew that this godlike being was being gentle with her on purpose.
Slenderman chuckled as he had read her mind and knew everything that she was thinking, "Now now Jane, don't go having fantasies, I'm a married man."
Jane blushed even more as she realized that he had read her mind, "Oh my god I'm so sorry!"
"It's quite alright Jane, you didn't know. I might be taken, but I'm sure my son would love to meet you, I'll introduce you to him after I give you your powers."
Jane smiled excitedly, "I'd love to meet him, and I'm ready to become a Proxy."
Slenderman nodded and his hand began to glow bright purple as his energy bonded with Jane, turning her into a superhuman Proxy.
Jane's skin turned a ghostly white and her eyes turned completely black, not just her irises, but her scleras as well. Slenderman pulled his hand back and tapped Jane's shoulders as if he was knighting her, "Alright Jane, you are officially a Proxy."
Jane smiled brightly and almost jumped in excitement, "Thank you so much Mr. Razion, I promise I won't let you down!"
Slenderman let out what sounded like a chuckle, "There's no need for the 'Mister', just Razion is fine. And I'm sure you won't Jane, I have faith in you. Oh! I almost forgot, I wanted to introduce you to my son" He turned around and looked towards his mansion without making any sound.
Just seconds after Slenderman had turned to his home, the front door opened and Jeff had stepped outside; Jane instantly recognized Jeff as he was her best friend and crush from high school. His hoodie was down making his long black hair and ghostly pale skin clearly visible, his blue eyes shined brightly like sapphires as the sunlight reflected off of them. As he walked forward, Jane could not take her eyes off him and her jaw dropped unconsciously as he approached her and Slenderman, "Yeah dad? You wanted me to meet some-" Jeff paused where he stood and went completely silent the moment he saw Jane.
Jeff looked at Jane with a shocked expression and finally gathered himself enough to speak, "H-how is this possible? You…?"
Jane looked back at Jeff, somewhat confused at his reaction, "Jeff, what's wr-"
Jane was cut off by Jeff hugging her tightly and she felt tears fall on her shoulder, "Kate! I missed you so much! I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect you!"
Jane was completely confused at this point, "Kate? Who's Kate? I'm Jane, remember, we went to high school together?"
Jeff pulled back and looked shocked, "Jane? Oh I'm so sorry, I mistook you for someone else…"
Jane smiled slightly, "It's okay, I do look really different now, I didn't think you would recognize me anyway."
Jeff looked at Jane and smiled to lighten the mood, "So, you're a Proxy now, I guess I should give you the big tour and have you meet the team."
Jane smiled back, "I'd love that. Wait, there's a team?"
"Yup, I'll introduce you to them."
Jeff turned and started to walk back to the mansion and stopped as he opened one of the large front doors, "You coming Jane?"
"I'll be right there, just wait for me."
"Alright." Jeff walked inside and left the door open for Jane. She turned to Slenderman and asked softly, "Hey Razion, can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"Who was Kate? Jeff mistook me for her."
Slenderman paused for a brief moment before answering, "Kate Milens, her nickname was Kate the Chaser, bravest girl I've ever known. Jeff was very fond of her as well, he… he loved her, it broke his heart when she was killed by Zalgo. Kid blames himself for not protecting her, but it wasn't his fault, I should have killed Zalgo before he could hurt my family, so that one's on me…"
Jane held Slenderman's hand in an attempt to comfort him, "I'm sorry."
"It's quite alright child, you didn't know. Now then, I believe you have a team to meet."
Jane smiled brightly, "Yes I do."
Jane turned and walked with Slenderman into the mansion, the large door appeared to close by itself but Jane realized that Slenderman had closed the door with his mind. After they had gone inside, Slenderman paused to ask Jane an important question, "Jane, do you have any family?"
Jane was not too surprised by the question as she realized that he had probably read her mind, "No, I live by myself."
Slenderman turned and looked down at Jane, "Well you're welcome to stay here if you wish."
Jane's eyes widened as she looked up at Slenderman, "Really? You'd let me live here?"
"Of course, you would not be the first orphan I took in, as a matter of fact, all of the Proxies are orphans. They all had nowhere to go, so I built them rooms and let them stay here with me. I can always build another room, it's really no trouble at all."
Jane froze in place for a brief moment before tears began to run down her face and she hugged him tightly, "Thank you, thank you so much!"
Slenderman knelt down and hugged Jane back, "You are very welcome child."
After a few moments, Slenderman pulled back and stood up before outstretching his arm to point in the direction of an open door, "Go on Jane, everyone is waiting for you."
Jane looked at Slenderman one last time and smiled, "Thank you, for everything, I think I'm gonna like it here." Jane walked through the open door to meet the people she would soon consider to be her family.
However, back in Arkwood City, a new crisis was rising. A group of mysterious agents were scanning the city with advanced devices. The group was led by two young men, one carrying a sword and revolver, the other clad in high-tech armor from head to toe, the latter was using his advanced visor to scan along with the agents. The leader armed with Quantum Sabre and Atomic Revolver spoke up, "Hey Clef, you detecting anything?"
The armored leader turned around and his helmet retracted, "Unfortunately yes, we're all detecting strong traces of Sigma Radiation, Slenderman was definitely here when the city was destroyed, but what I don't understand is why he would fix the city after he destroyed it, makes no sense."
"He's covering his tracks, Slenderman is a crafty guy, he knows we're watching him."
"So what's your call Kondraki?"
Dr. Kondraki paused for a moment to consider his next decision very carefully before answering Dr. Clef, "Regroup at base and assemble the Thaumiel Operatives, as of right now, the SCP Foundation is at war with Slenderman."
TO BE CONTINUED...
