Boogeyman Gaiden: Going Viral
Writer's Note: To new readers, this takes place in a fanon universe with multiple original characters. The canon show Titans may not show up much. Just so you don't start reading and become immensely confused.
"Cure for an obsession: Get another one."
-Mason Cooley
It had been a such nice day too.
The weather had faded to a distant concern, as Savior touched down next to the large strip mall. He didn't have to look far to figure out where to go: the overturned car and the smashed-in front of the Toys B U made it pretty clear. You would think such a spectacle would have attracted police cars, but not this time. Noel knew why and accepted it.
The background of Jump City gave a hint just why, from the sheer volume of sirens that were echoing across the metropolis. Not exactly music to the Titan's ears, but he'd take it over explosions and massive plumes of smoke. How inevitable that happening was…Savior didn't want to think about it. One step at a time.
"Savior here. I've tracked Gauntlet down."
"Are the audio implants working?" Robin said.
Savior inserted two Shimmer strands into his ear, waited several seconds, then extracted the strands.
"Yes."
"Utmost caution, Savior. And…well, if it comes down to you or him in terms of injuries…"
"I'll play it by the ears I won't have, Robin. I'll make contact again back in five." Savior said, and headed into the toy store.
The checking-out lanes at the front of the store were equally smashed, as were several displays and one wall of toys. Savior made his way through the large building, following the trail of destruction, grateful he didn't find any bodies. The noise reached him before long, hiding Savior's quiet footsteps as he came to the teddy bear aisle.
Said aisle was a mass of shredded fur, fluff, and clashing colors. In the midst of it all was Robert Candide, ripping open a stuffed unicorn. Tossing it aside, he grabbed up a toy dog and began hugging it, his tortured face briefly becoming serene. It only lasted a few seconds, and then Gauntlet snarled, saliva flying from his mouth as he began tearing the dog open.
Savior checked to see if there was a way to sneak around Gauntlet and came up with nothing. Insufficient cover. The Shimmer strands extracted upwards into Savior's ears, and as they retracted, he stomped his foot.
Gauntlet's eyes snapped up, wild and inhuman.
Then he looked at Savior and screamed. A noise came out of his throat that seemed impossible for a human to make, several vague syllables propelled by a high-pitched shrieking that sounded like someone was twisting a bat in one's hands. Savior seemed unaffected by this sound, instead bracing himself.
The gauntlet-fist was big, blobby, and almost soft looking. Savior dodged out of the way and began backing up, keeping his eyes on Gauntlet. Gauntlet surged up and charged at Noel, and after deciding his backwards run wasn't moving him away from Gauntlet fast enough, the white-haired Titan called on his Shimmer talent and had IT throw him backwards. A good idea, as it let him avoid Gauntlet's lashing yellow energy arm as smashed through the toy aisle Savior had just vacated, cleaving through wood and metal stands like they were made of cotton candy, shattered toys and their packages slamming into Savior. Gauntlet charged up the mess of the aisle way immediately afterwards, and Savior leapt to the ceiling, waiting until Gauntlet ran underneath him before falling down onto him, trying to pin him to the ground.
With one sweeping motion, Gauntlet seized Savior with his power and slammed him into a toy rack, knocking it over before he pinned the white-haired Titan to the ground instead. Grabbing up a handful of stuffing, Gauntlet violently shoved it into Savior's face, even as more yellow lines grabbed for Noel's jaw, trying to pry it open. Savior's own talent came to the rescue, grabbing Gauntlet by the hair and yanking him backwards. Gauntlet screamed…and the Shimmer flowed into his mouth, lodging between his teeth and locking his jaw closed. Gauntlet let out a muffled scream, trying to bite down on the Shimmer even as his yellow energies ripped and tore at Noel, shredding into his white jacket. Savior grit his own teeth, as yet another Shimmer line surged up to Savior's throat and traced something.
"SINE COSINE TANGENT ANGLE!"
Gauntlet jerked violently at Savior's yelled phrase, having a seconds-long seizure before he slumped down to the ground. Savior pulled himself up, checked his side for injuries (a few cuts, but nothing serious), and then let out a slow exhale. That could have gone a lot worse.
Gauntlet stirred, and Savior picked him up and pinned him to the nearest wall, loops of Shimmer around every part of him, including his neck and forehead.
"…Noel, if this is your idea of a prank, I think you read the wrong part of the encyclopedia and looked up the Spanish Inquisition instead." Gauntlet said. "Ow…what did I eat last night?"
"Gauntlet, say Password 12, followed by Verse 7."
"What? Password. Why?"
"Do it."
"Well, uh…hey! Let me go!"
"First say the passwords."
"I never saw a purple drow…Drizzle ruined the franchise…olly olly oxen free!" Gauntlet blathered.
"…that's not it, but you're cured." Savior said, letting the Titan go. Shimmer strands reached back up to his ears, Savior wincing a bit as they performed whatever process they had to do.
"Cured? From what?"
"What's the last thing you remember, Gauntlet? Also you better open your mouth, the Shimmer will be gentler than a stomach pump."
"…why would I need a stomach pump?"
"I'll tell you when I'm done. Open your mouth."
What followed was a rather unpleasant fifty seconds for Gauntlet as Savior plumbed the depths of his gastric track, or at least that's what it felt like. Gauntlet felt a bit better about it when the Shimmer, acting like a specialized vacuum, extracted nearly two handfuls of soaked fur and fluff.
"That might have caused you problems in passing. Literally." Savior said.
"What the heck is that? Why did I EAT it?"
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"Uh…I was on the computer while the rest of you guys were getting ready to carve pumpkins…I was checking an email from…Megan…and…"
"It was a video link for a toy. That's where it was. For you. The I-Ni meme plague."
"…the whowhatthefrack?" Gauntlet said, before he sank to his knees. "Ughhhh…"
"Gauntlet? Are you all right?" Savior said, checking Gauntlet's pulse, eyes, and breathing.
"Feel like crap."
"The 'I need a cup of coffee' feel like crap or 'I wanna sleep and don't care if the world breaks in half' feel like crap?"
"…I wanna cup of coffee that could break the world in half feel like crap."
"No Sundollars around here. Here, see if this helps." Savior said, grabbing a cola from the wrecked mini-fridge at the front of the toy store and handing it to Gauntlet. "Actually, wait. Drink this water first. Make sure your stomach isn't going to turn over."
"Yes mom." Gauntlet said, but he did what Noel suggested, the Titan having also helpfully liberated a water bottle from the damaged fridge. "So…you wanna fill in the middle of the movie I missed?"
"You know how a virus works?"
"Makes you sick? Or do you mean how it infects cells and turns them into virus-producing factories, hence killing the cells and causing your immune system to fight back against the invader, hence why you get sick? You always did love your details."
"It's where you find the devils. Got one hell of a one this time." Savior said, holding out his communicator, the small device projecting a hologram that began showing some weird wavy line. "This is our problem. We've dubbed it the I-Ni meme plague. You know what a meme is right?"
Gauntlet gave Savior a wry look, before he began drinking his cola.
"How many pop culture references did you just think of throwing at me?"
"Crossing the six hundred barrier and with no signs of stopping."
"Pop culture's not the only place where memes originate though, Gauntlet…"
"Yes Noel, I know what a meme is. It's an idea that spreads, etc etc, get to the relevant part of the exposition."
"You remember when Darkseid unleashed the Anti-Life Equation on the internet?"
"Do I have to?"
"This is similar. Smaller scale, but same vein. It's a virus that doesn't travel through cells, but in audio signals. Nine highly specific tones that, if uttered or projected, immediately begin to make alterations to a victim's brain. Changing electrical signals in the brain instead of cells." Savior said, as the hologram changed to a layout of the human brain and demonstrated things regarding the sound wave that Gauntlet didn't really understand. "I don't know how it works precisely, we just discovered the process two hours ago. Whoever put it online somehow implanted it in the middle of several hundred, maybe thousands of established videos, downloads, even a bunch of direct links for idiots to click. Once you hear the tones…you belong to them. Your mind goes. Worse…anyone infected by this meme somehow learns to project the tones at the precise pitch and frequency needed to spread it. Because of that, I actually had to fight you with enforced deafness."
"…and it was in the video I was sent by Megan…is she…?"
"She's fine. She was linking to something, rather than sending you a video file. Had she sent you the file with this in it…but she didn't. What happens when you hear the tones is that, whatever it was concealed inside, or whatever you were doing when you heard it, you become obsessed with it. In your case, it was an ad for a teddy bear. Your whole brain became consumed by them. Now that would almost be cute…the problem is this a disease. There's a degeneration in the process. Whatever you become obsessed with…eventually you end up hating it for not living up to your expectations. Trying to destroy it. And from that…you end up wanting to become whatever you're obsessed with. That's why you ate that fluff, Gauntlet. You were literally trying to stuff yourself. You would have kept trying until you'd choked to death. Oh yeah, and if anyone tries to stop you? First you try and spread the meme. Failing that, you try and kill the person."
"So I became an irrational toy-obsessed zombie…well, now I know how half the people on those message boards who talk about us feel." Gauntlet said, finishing his cola. "So what are we doing?"
"You were thankfully not subtle when you were infected. Made us realize we had a problem. Cyborg quickly figured out the nature, we contacted Malcolm…that's Herald if you can't immediately recall, he goes by Vox now…he came to help. Raven kept him shielded from the viral part of the tones and he was able to use his unique implants to generate a counter-frequency. Four tones, specifically ein-ein-an-ang. You can't just say those words or sounds, though. It has to be precise, and I mean PRECISE. Too precise for most of us to replicate on the spot. We found the phrase 'Sine Cosine Tangent Angle' best encompassed an on the spot pronunciation, but it's better to use recordings. I had Raven cast a spell on me so I could do it exactly, for you…because, you see, recordings can be broken. Didn't want to take chances. Not to mention that any background noise can disrupt the process, so I had to wait for a moment of quiet you couldn't interrupt. Annoying…the only good news is that the same thing works on the I-Ni meme."
"Why I-Ni?"
"The first two syllable tones sound a lot like I and Ni…and what it does is take whatever YOU are, and whatever you were looking at, and makes it your own whole, nigh onto anything else…look Gauntlet, not all terms can be amazingly crafted. We're running on a clock."
"How far has this spread?"
"Whether total saturation failed or if the random scattershot nature of this event is purposeful…less than three percent of the city. But that's still three percent of a few million people who are driven out of their minds, trying to kill themselves and others, and we can't blow their heads off like a traditional zombie. That's why I asked how you feel, Gauntlet. We're needed. This hasn't just hit Jump. It's other places as well. The rest of the world's heroes have their hands full. The Titans are on their own. We need to try and contain the spread of it…"
"Say no more. I've been training for this day my whole life. True, I don't get to use shotguns, chainsaws, or katanas…"
"I told you those would make terrible weapons for a zombie crisis."
"Who said anything about zombies?" Gauntlet said, getting up and testing his feet. "What do we do?"
"Finding out." Savior said, tossing Gauntlet a spare communicator and getting his own out. "Robin, you available?"
"…yes. Report."
"Gauntlet's been neutralized. It went well, he's back on our side and in fighting shape."
"Good. Because we need you. We almost had this contained…there's one breach. The Rendale Metroplex. You know where that is?"
"Yes. Unlike some people, I have a GPS." Savior said with mild sarcasm, looking at Gauntlet.
"Hey! I have a great sense of direction!"
"Reports are saying the whole building might be infected. Every movie broke into a sudden commercial for snack foods and…"
"I got it."
"I'm sending Scalpel for backup. He's been properly equipped. Hold this line, Savior. We hold this, we can end this before it gets REALLY bad."
"Roger that." Savior said, signing off. "Gauntlet, one last thing. These infected victims can project the meme plague. While it's true background noise disrupts it…that's too risky. The best option is to remove their ability to infect you." Savior said, holding up two tiny metallic buds. "I can implant these in your ear canal. Negates sound entirely. The downside being you can't hear at all…but I'm sure you can adapt to that."
"…Did I ever mention I hate Halloween now? That's what you guys have done. You made me hate Halloween. A time when candy is given out by the bucket load, terrible movies get to make millions, and pranking is EXPECTED, and I hate it now. Are you happy? Have to accomplished some long standing goal?"
"Gauntlet, who are you talking to? Me?" Savior said, having inserted the sound negation tech into Gauntlet's ears while the Uberton teen was ranting.
"Nothing. Never mind." Gauntlet said, getting his artifact ready. "…I swear, you keep forgetting to finish that damn third story because you like torturing me too much!"
"What?"
"Nothing."
"I love the nightlife…I love to boogey…" Scalpel hummed, sitting on a car in front of the Rendale Metroplex. He missed his weapons, and he missed the metallic clicking of his claws when he tapped them against each other. It couldn't be helped, though. He had to, and had already, faced fragile humans who were in the grip of a disease. Between his strength and his natural claws, Scalpel could have tore the infected humans apart with the greatest of ease…and that would not do. So he was wearing special shield generators up his wrists that turned his clawed hands into what were essentially very dense pillows. Even with THAT, he'd have to pull his punches.
"…you can't just do it again!" Gauntlet was saying as the two other Titans touched down.
"The spell I used to precisely say the counter-tones was good for one use. Besides, I had to make sure you or nothing else was making any noise when I used it. Even if I could use it again, there's going to be so much racket in there that it'd be pointless. For this case, we need to disable, tie and gag them, and cure them in bunches."
"Why can't we just have Raven come here and skip a few of these middlemen? Surely she could make it simpler!"
"She's occupied." Scalpel said, walking up. "One of the I-Ni 'detonation' sites was an elementary school."
"…oh." Gauntlet said.
"We send our best where they're needed. The rest of us grin, bear it, and then save the day." Savior said. "Scalpel, you have the sound-negators implanted?"
"Yeah. Tkick annoying, that." Scalpel said, rubbing his ears.
"Afraid I'll have to ask more of you. Gauntlet and I are more fragile, in a sense…if one of those infected hits us hard enough or at the right angle, we could be in trouble. But you…I don't think even in their madness they could really affect you. Unless they somehow brought guns. Even if they did, I don't think they have the senses remaining to fire them. So…yeah. You get to tank."
"Sophie's going to be irked with you."
"If we can fix this before it eats our whole city, she can be downright venomous to me if it makes her feel better." Savior said. "Gauntlet, once we go in there, we'll be deaf. We won't be able to warn each other, or hear our enemies if they try and attack us from behind. Try to do your best to keep your back to a wall whenever you can. Utilize the third dimension. These are just normal people, and they can't reach you if you're on the ceiling. But they could potentially maim or kill themselves trying, so don't stay up there long."
"Would you like an eighth rope to tie my hands, Noel?"
"Yeah. We can't just knock people out and leave them where they lie. They could get stepped on, trampled, worse. You're going to have to work out a safe zone, protect it, fill it, and not get overwhelmed. This is your mission, if you choose to accept it, and I'm sorry but my head is not going to explode. We're not in Scanners."
"…anything else?"
"…they do seem to fixate on people who hit them and aren't being converted by their screams. So…try not to hit too many people at once?"
"…roger." Gauntlet said. "Well then…you wanna compete for points?"
"If you want. I'll probably be focused on other things." Savior said, as the three walked towards the wrecked doors of the movie theater, the low carnage within increasing in volume as they did.
The inside was a complete mess. People of all walks of life stood, sat, and lay within, all sense of dignity and restraint gone, as they feasted on movie snacks. Gauntlet immediately assessed that the trio had had great timing. Supplies would have run dry within another minute at most, and then, based on what Savior had told him about the I-Ni meme, the infected would probably turn on each other then.
"Anyone else getting Gremlins flashbacks?" Gauntlet said.
"Somehow I doubt we can solve this by putting on Snow White and blowing up the theatre." Savior said, extracting Shimmer strands and preparing to turn off his sense of hearing. "All right Gauntlet…make me proud."
"You can't tell me what to do, you're not my father!" Gauntlet mock-protested, but he could tell Savior had turned off his hearing before he got three words into it. "Cheater."
Then Gauntlet's implants activated.
The absolute silence that fell over Gauntlet's sense of self was jarring, more so than he'd expected. He'd figured it would be a shift, but watching the masses before him suddenly all go as quiet as a tomb made him realize why silence was so often associated with death. He did feel like he wasn't quite as alive any more. Another ironic take on zombiedom.
Of course, then the infected saw them. Nearly as one, they screamed. Even without any noise, Gauntlet suddenly had a flashback to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You're next. You're next.
Yeah, silence could also be gold.
The first infected went for them…and an idea popped into Gauntlet's head. Leaping forward, he jabbed the first wave with multiple Gauntlet strands and then leapt again, going deeper into the mass. He could imagine that Savior was already yelling at him, and despite the situation, Gauntlet grinned. He had a blank check to ignore Noel! Hell, it was to be expected!
"Savior, I have an idea! If you have no problem with me implementing it, please say nothing!" Gauntlet called, and then slammed his focus down. The infected fixated on the ones that attacked him. Gauntlet promptly made as many of them mad at him as possible, going in a big loop around the movie theater before going back out the door.
Savior and Scalpel, as he'd expected, had split up to fight the stragglers. Perfect. Normally Savior would have never left the door open and exposed. But, with all of these infected bent towards eating movie food, they'd have no reason to try and leave the theater.
Unless someone gave them one. Like Gauntlet. He landed back at the entrance, flashed Savior a thumbs up, and then sprinted out the door.
"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" Savior yelled by instinct, as the plague of infected chased Gauntlet out the door. Savior almost went out after them, resisting after some effort. If he abandoned Scalpel here, even he could be overwhelmed. "Damn it Gauntlet! I said make me PROUD, not make me MAD!"
Scalpel probably would have commented that the blonde-haired Titan saw little difference between the two accomplishments, but he was too busy living out his 60's super-spy fantasies. The best way to handle such grim circumstances like fighting a bunch of mind controlled citizens who would kill themselves trying to get to you was to make light of it where you could. Not to mention that, with his strength and medical knowledge, Scalpel actually COULD get a 'judo chop' to work properly.
Such a process worked when you were fighting teenagers and men in business suits. It became harder when two girls who couldn't be any older than seven latched onto your legs and tried to bite them off.
Or the fact that, in trying to remove them, you promptly got dog-piled by more of the aforementioned teenagers and suits.
"For the love of-ARGGGHHHHH!" Savior yelled as a housewife grabbed onto his hand and tried to treat his fingers like licorice. Maybe he should have taken Scalpel's tactic and tried to have some fun. He certainly wasn't having any now.
The plan was simple. A curfew had been imposed on Jump, according to Noel, so anyone Gauntlet encountered on the streets would either be police or infected. If it was the former, Gauntlet would yell for them to get clear. If it was the latter, Gauntlet would poke them in the eye to get them to chase him. Once they chased him…
These were not zombies. Gauntlet suspected they could ignore some pain and fatigue, but not all of it. Gauntlet also figured that, while he wasn't Tim, between his powers and the training he had received, he could handle a ten-block all out sprint better than a bunch of average Jump citizens. Gauntlet hadn't spied any old folks in the procession after him (they probably attended the matinees), so no one was going to drop dead of a heart attack. He'd run them until they were worn out, THEN he'd knock them out. It would be easier for all involved, in the end. He just needed a better street. The car-alleyway he'd turned onto should take him there…
Except it didn't. It led him to an enclosed parking lot that served as the back lot for several buildings. Gauntlet came to a dead stop.
"…oops."
He'd outsmarted himself. Yeah, he could just climb out…but even if he tried to do that and loop around, who knew how many of the infected would brain themselves on the walls that THEY could not climb trying to get to him?
Well…at least he hadn't gotten all sweaty. That was one consolation. Not much, but as Gauntlet turned to look at the charging infected rampaging towards him in perfect silence, he figured it was something.
Now he had to think of something.
Scalpel had. In advance. Gas erupted from the pile of infected, the men and women slumping off of the alien as he carefully put them all down. Tranquilizing chemicals were risky, but desperate times and all that. Having been locked into his safe zone by how many people he'd just knocked out, Scalpel went right back into his routine. Thankfully, Savior was spared all his bad puns.
Savior, on the other hand, had ended up fighting into a movie theater proper, using the seats to put obstacles between himself and the infected. Knocking out who he could, he made his way through the aisles, leaving various unconscious infected sitting in the seats of the theater.
Savior had no idea what the movie actually playing was. Just that it was very, very bright. Making his way up to the front of the stage, Savior stood there and made a spectacle of himself, drawing as many infected in as he could. After fifteen seconds of that, Savior pulled something out of his coat.
Then, in two quick extending Shimmer strands, Savior slammed the doors of the theater shut and broke the projector. A few more quick strands broke the exit and emergency lights, plunging the whole theater into darkness.
Savior wasn't going to fight blind as well as deaf, though.
With the special sunglasses he brought, he didn't have to, as it switched on and gave him perfect night vision. ZOMBIES might have tended towards being presented as expert nocturnal hunters…but these were not zombies.
"3D, eat your heart out." Savior said, and leapt out into the blinded, fumbling masses.
Don't let them hurt each other. The safety of the citizens was the number one concern. If he had to, Gauntlet should allow himself to be ripped to shreds so the people weren't…
Punch punch nerve pinch punch…
Gauntlet didn't like the idea that the core of heroing was sacrifice. The core of heroing should have been nobility. There would be sacrifice, but it should not be the central tenant! That wasn't just stupid, it was self-defeating! Who was going to pick up heroing if the vanguard got themselves killed for stupid reasons?
Teeth. Fingernails. Amazing how unpleasant they turned when all sense was lost, when all one knew was rage…
Gauntlet didn't think this would end in sacrifice. It was some crazy Halloween disaster. Been there, done that, even went into the torture porn pool. These things ended with bumps, bruises, and candy. That's HOW IT WENT…
So many…wouldn't stop…WOULDN'T…STOP…!
But then again, most modern day horror films did seem to take delight in being exceptionally mean-spirited.
…Viciously…mean-spirited.
Savior kicked the door open, ready to resume his war.
Instead, he found there wasn't even a piece left. Scalpel stood before a semi-pile of humanity, looking around and spotting his ally.
What followed was perhaps the strangest game of charades ever.
STABBING…MASTURBATING…COOKING? SOMETHING TO DO WITH COOKING? TEMPERATURE…DONE? IT'S DONE? IN THAT THEATER?
FISTPUMP? PUNCHING? DEFIBRILLATION…? OH! CLEAR! ARE WE CLEAR?
Savior went to check, looking inside the other theaters. Two minutes later, Savior had turned up six stragglers who were easily dispatched.
HEARING? TURN ON? NO? FIST? PUNCH? GAUNTLET!
And so the two Titans ran out the door, Savior turning on Gauntlet's tracking beacon.
They found him within a minute.
They were thirty-five seconds too slow.
"…oh! Hey guys!" Gauntlet said, sitting in front of his own pile of unconscious infected. "You missed me that much?"
Oh, I'm sorry. You were expecting something else? It was Gauntlet. He has lots of shields.
Scalpel and Savior looked at their fellow Titan's handiwork. Scalpel even gave Gauntlet some brief applause.
"Thank you! I work hard to get the best results!" Gauntlet said, and then Savior turned his hearing back on. "Ow! Now you're going to tell me how it was all wrong, right?"
"…actually…no. It got results, and that's all that matters." Savior said. "Let's get these guys back to the movie theater. Call Vox. Hopefully we can get this gunk cleaned out of their head before the sun's down."
"You're carrying the fat ones." Gauntlet said.
"Which one are the fat ones?"
"…damn. They need to start charging even MORE for movie food."
Savior, with his hearing back on, took a moment to note the background noise as he and Gauntlet gathered up the infected with their respective powers. Still lots of sirens…but less so. Savior would take it.
"So…that's it?" Gauntlet said.
"Barring another call for duty, once Vox shows and helps these people…I think so." Savior said.
"So…this is just another day in Jump?"
"…A BAD day…but yes, in some senses." Scalpel said.
"…huh. Kind of an anti-climax don't you think?"
"What?" Savior said, as the three began heading back to the main road with their cargo.
"Well we have this audio virus that makes people crazy-obsessed with random stuff…and…it ends up being a bunch of nutso people attacking us? Yeah we had to be deaf and all, and that sucked somewhat…but not as much as it could have."
"Gauntlet…why are you pointing out how much more EXCEPTIONAL and, by extent, BAD, this could have been? Do you like tempting fate?"
"Just doing it so they don't."
"Who's THEY?"
"Exactly."
"That's not a scary story, Uncle Rob! That's just another punchy story!"
"Well…I never told you who send the I-Ni meme plague."
"Yeah? Who DID do that?"
"…we never found out."
"…What?"
"…no one ever claimed credit. Our attempt to track it down went cold. We never found anyone whose powers really matched up to something like that…it just vanished into the ether. And never came back. Even thirty years going on…we have no idea who did it. Or why. Just…one day, a sound came out of cyberspace and tried to drive the world crazy."
"…how is that scary?"
"Hmmm." Gauntlet said. For the rest of the night, he was quiet.