Anomaly
Episode 1- A ghost of his former self
Disclaimer- I don't own Mad Father, Prototype, or TwoKinds. Only saying this once, I don't own anything
Smoke was rising from the middle of the forest, the origin of it coming from a large mansion, burning to the ground. In front of it, a lone figure stood watching the mansion burn. He was of average height, thin yet lithe form and dressed in blue sneakers with blue socks, aqua sweatpants, and a cyan V-neck with a blue un-zipped hoodie with the hood up, the shadow the hood casting shrouding his features in blackness above his nose, making his eyes and hair impossible to see.
He muttered to himself as he watched the flames, "So, it's finally over…still can't believe it, that monster…better start walking to town…" rubbing the spot on his neck where he was injected, he started walking into town.
He didn't know what to think anymore. It just seemed so... pointless to think. It was all gone, after all. He didn't know what he was going to do now, what he left behind back there was all he had ever known. And as he saw the building's in the distance grow larger as he trudged closer to the closest town that was near where he lived, he couldn't help but notice the aching part on his neck. What's even worse was the pain was starting to rapidly spread down his neck, into his body.
He winced, holding his neck as another surge of pain pules through his body. He'd have to see someone about that.
He finally did make it to the city, and by this point the pain in his neck had spread to his entire body. Just walking was an effort, and now the symptoms had increased to him coughing blood every few minutes. A normal person would usually be concerned with this. But he didn't care.
He didn't even notice the eight individuals that stepped up to him, from where he didn't know. Maybe behind that dumpster over there, or something. He couldn't pay attention due to the fact that his blood was rushing so fast inside of his body that he was starting to sweat. The tallest one walked up to him and attempted to say something. He didn't get a chance when the blue figure slapped his hand onto his chest, eliciting a loud-sounding SMACK! As he was knocked to the ground.
He didn't know where the strength came from, probably adrenaline. He never was that physical a person He wanted to go, go to a hospital, ask someone for help... anything, really.
He'd ask the fine gentlemen here for help but the pain just WOULDN'T STOP.
He didn't take three steps before the man on the ground barked an order, what it was he couldn't even understand, causing one of the men to step in front of him and pull a pocket knife out, plunging it into Blue's stomach. Strangely, it didn't even hurt the blue person, though he'd wager it was most likely due to the fact that his body was in more pain than a knife could produce.
But he still had just been stabbed, something that was usually seen as a hostile act. He tried to push the man away, maybe dislodge the knife and try to run. Though, oddly, when he thrust his hand forward in order to push the man off, his hand went through his chest.
Both looked at the wound in shock the person who'd stabbed him gasping in pain while the blue one looked in morbid curiosity, twisting the arm in the wound as if trying to make sure it was real. The, to everyone around them greater shock, writing black tendrils that appeared to be made of some hard-yet-fleshy material emerged from the blue figure's back and burrowed their way into the impaled man, said man screaming as his entire body was surrounded by the tendrils, the blue figure having no control as his writhing body was pulled into his own, the body seemingly dissolving and being absorbed into the blue one's.
All this took about five seconds.
And then the blue figure held his head, screaming in pain as more of the tendrils swirled and swished around his body. He was seeing things, memories... memories of the person he had... had eaten? Consumed?He didn't know, but everything that person had know, now he knew. Meanwhile the pain in his body was amplified, the flesh under his cloths rippling sporadically as it started to change.
"Yo man, what the hell is this thing!?" one of the gang members shouted, the others backing away in panic as the blue figure's body contorted in strange angles.
Blue finally did speak, screaming in agony, "what's happening to me!? What the hell did he- why does it hurt so much!?" gasping and recoiling as his body seemingly started to grow larger, before his entire body rippled in tendrils, growing exponentially into some hideous creature composed of a mass of the tendrils, fissures in said tendrils glowing a blue bio-luminescence as the limbs thrashed out, growing larger and more monstrous, the head turning into a more reptilian appearance, screaming in pain and confusion as it thrashed around wildly.
And then, almost as if through some divine intervention, a large glowing fissure opened in the sky, a blue light shining through as the monster floated up, screaming as it was pulled in, the fissure closing as soon as the beast was withing.
And like that, it departed as soon as it arrived.
In another dimension, two cosmic figures watched 'blue' with extreme interest. The first one spoke in a aged male voice, saying, "we wouldn't have to do this if you hadn't killed Trace while trying to erase his memories, Ephemural…"
The second glanced at the first, before shaking it's head, speaking in a feminine voice. "Well, what's done is done. The die of fate has been cast, and we need someone of equal power to take his place, after all. Who knows? He might prefer this dimension to his, considering what happened…"
"But he's not even human anymore!" the the first one protested. "Did you even witness that... that abomination he became!? It's clear he isn't-"
"What's clear is that you have no concept of the rules of our game," the second snapped, before continuing. "He was originally human, so regardless of what form he takes, it counts. Don't be a spoilsport, now. After all, I've just given you a champion who may be more powerful than the last."
"... We will see about that," the first scoffed, then waved an ethereal hand. "Bring him. But if anything detrimental happens to affect the up-coming war, it's your head!"
All the second did is chuckle, opening the same portal that had sucked the monster in somewhere else, unseen to the eye. "If what that wretched demon spoke of is true, Corvin will be a marvelous addition to the game," it stated.
The last thing Corvin remembered was a blue hole opening up in the sky while he was... freaking out was a word. Losing control? Turning into a monster? Really all of those were applicable to the situation, but the last thing he remembered was doing that before whatever that was sucked him up.
And now here he was: in the middle of the forest, laying on his back. He'd like to say he just passed out on the way to town and collapsed in the middle of the forest and all of that was just a fever dream, but... he still had those memories of that person he'd consumed.
"Consumed?" He tossed the word around in his mind. Sounded alright to him, so he'd refer to it as that. So that couldn't be true, which means all that did happen. So... where was he now?
He rolled over and groaned, getting to his feet while inspecting his body, muttering under his breath, "cloths are fine, body feels normal... sort of... what's going on?" He patted his chest, arms, legs, and head, hoping to find something wrong with him... yet there was nothing. And he could have sworn all of his cloths had ripped off when he turned into whatever that thing was.
"This doesn't make any sense." He looked around, scratching his head. "Don't tell me a part of the curse was not letting me leave here... nah, that can't be it, I burned the house down, made it to town-"
"HELP!"
His ears perked up, hearing a desperate plea for help. Only... it sounded familiar. Too familiar.
"It... it can't be Aya..." he thought to himself. But those thoughts lagged behind the immediate thoughts of panic that surged through him, causing to sprint towards where the plea came from.
Going to where the cry for help actually originated from, there were two individuals. There were many differences between these two people, but there was one glaring one- and that was that one had fur while the other one didn't. Other inconsistencies were there, too, such as the fact the furred one was female and the other was male. She was cowering against a tree while he seemed completely relaxed.
He had a sword. She didn't.
The male spoke first, startling the female one and causing her crawl against a tree. "Hey, little keidran. Looks like your in a lot of trouble. These are human lands… and your head's worth quite a lot here. You'd be amazed what they'd pay for a hide like yours."
It was at that point the aforementioned keidran continued to whimper as she shrunk further back into the tree. "Pl-please stop..." she wanted to say these words, but she was too afraid to say anything, especially as the sword was slowly raised. "I-I don't want to d-"
"NONONOSTO-!"her yellow eyes widened when she saw a blue blur heading straight for her, and dove out of the way just as a body crashed right into the tree, the impact causing the tree bark to be blown off. She blinked, watching as the human- she assumed he was human- groaned as he slid down the tree, gripping both sides and dislodging his body, hissing in pain.
"Agh, my face!" Corvin groaned, shoving his hands under his hood and rubbing his face. He had meant to go fast, but... that was way too fast. He barely even saw himself move he went so fast. "Man, that really...! Really... huh. That didn't hurt." Confused, he looked at the tree, seeing a large dent in the trunk, and looked back to where he came from, then back to the tree. "That... that should have hurt," he said, and looked at his feet. "And I shouldn't have been..." suddenly, he remember why he came here, immediately focusing his attention to the first person he saw, a sandy-haired man with a sword.
The sword was a little strange for Corvin to see, but he'd worry about it later. He needed answers. "Hey, uh... you." He pointed to the swordsman, then pointed back to where he came from. "I heard yelling from someone and... geh...?"
It was at this point his eyes wandered over to the other person with them, and at that point all of Corvin's thought processes froze instantly. He'd originally had come running out of the forest hoping to see Aya, but this wasn't her. Not by a long shot. Honestly, he didn't know what to call it. In basic terms, it had the proportions of a human, except of course for the disproportionate legs, the tail, the orange and white fur with black stripes, ears... if he was to say anything, she looked like a cross between a human and a tiger, with the only human thing about her being the shape and the long brown hair.
"It's not her," he thought glumly. Of course it wasn't her, what was he expecting.
As he looked at the keidran, tilting his head slightly, the swordsman spoke. "Why are you looking at the keidran like that?" he asked.
Corvin looked back at the man, shaking his head."A what?" he pointed at the keidran, who started to stare back at Corvin. "You mean her?".
Sandy sighed. "It would have been easier if he was actually native to this world," he thought, eyes narrowing. "All I have to do is leave her with him."
"Look," he began, "I don't have time for this. I'll tell you what, the keidran is yours. Later." With that, he turned and started walking, but turned his head to say,"Oh, and be careful, she's vicious. If I were you, I would kill her now." And with that, he walked out of sight.
Corvin tilted his head more at the retreating figure. "You're just walking away? Like that?" he called after him. He didn't answer, instead choosing to keep going.
"Weird..." It didn't make much sense for him to just leave like that. But, whatever. He went away and that's all that mattered for now. Though something he said did put Corvin off a bit.
"Vicious?" he wondered aloud, turning to the keidran, who was now clutching the green sweatshirt she wore like looking at him strangely. "She doesn't look that vicious… then again, dolls weren't vicious, but they tried to kill me with a knife… but nothing that looks so much like her could possibly..."
"Eh, whatever," he shrugged. It wasn't his problem anyways, girl was safe, he still didn't know what was going on. Sounded like a days work to him, so he waved at the keidran, turning to walk away. "So, um, seeya, weird, cat… tiger… thing… um, gonna go, don't even know if you understand me… so, yeah… bye…" He spotted a knapsack on the ground and, figuring the man from earlier had dropped it and that he'd need it more, grabbed it and walked off.
... At least that was the plan until he heard a feline-like "NYA!" come from behind him and discover two furry arms wrap around his waist. Raising a hidden yet perplexed eyebrow, he carefully pried the arms off of him, turning around and spotting the girl standing behind him, looking down.
Experimentally, he took a step backwards. She took a step forwards, which caused him to sigh. "Why are you doing that?" he questioned, taking another step back, only for her to take one forward. "Are you kidding me, look, I don't-"
She looked up to his eyes- at least where she assumed his eyes were- and Corvin stopped talking. Those eyes... they weren't the same color, but that look. It was the same one she used to give him. That Aya gave him.
"... Fine. Let's go," he relented, nodding to the direction he was going, the girl nodding and walking in his tow.
He should have said "no". He really should have, because he didn't know what he was doing here. He already had questions on how she existed and was trying to think up multiple theories. One was that she was just something that happen to exist and no-one knew, or that blue sky-hole thing... somehow threw him into another world.
Seeing as he doubted former due to the fact the guy from earlier acted like her kind was common knowledge and had a sword of all things, something that hadn't been used as a weapon in ages, he was betting on the latter, a conclusion that made him want to rip his hair out in in frustration. He would have done it, too, if the keidran hadn't been staring at his back the whole time they had been together.
It was just what he needed, he already had something weird going on with his body, and now he had to deal with this!? "Worst day in my life..." he thought, shaking his head slowly. They been walking for five hours and she still hadn't said a word. Maybe she couldn't even talk, but he heard someone who sounder like her, and she had her eyes in a way, so either she was holding out or she only knew a few words. Who knew? He sure didn't.
Suddenly, his foot caught on a branch embedded in the ground. Normally, this would be cause for someone to trip, though, for whatever reason, his foot actually tore the root out of the ground, and act which surprised both when they saw it.
"Eh-heh-heh-heh... I'm sure that root wasn't that far in the ground," he assured the keidran, though really it was an attempt to assure himself. He needed to figure out what was going on soon, but first he'd have to find a way to leave her behind for awhile. His answer came in the form of a clearing they had walked into.
"Well, here seems to be as good place to rest as any," he said while grabbing a blanket he obtained from the knapsack, then taking out a map. "Alright, so, according to this map, either were pretty close to a town, or it's a coffee stain, which wouldn't be the first time. So, I'm wondering, can you… AH!" He was turning around, then whipped back to where he was on seeing the tiger taking her green sweater off, and seeing that she was topless. "Can you... can you put the sweater back on!?" he frantically requested, trying to get the image out of his head.
Then she did something unexpected, and spoke. "I'm sorry, it's just that… this sweater irritates my fur…" she timidly said, causing Corvin to turn back to her in surprise. He was wrong, she sounded like Aya, but it was slightly deeper than he was used to. And he also saw that her breasts were covered by fur, which eased him by the slightest amount.
Shrugging, he said, "well yeah, I can understand that, but… wait a minute." He pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Wait, you can talk!?" he yelled at her.
She seemed taken back, something that made Corvin instantly regret raising his voice. "Well, yeah, I thought you knew…" she stated.
He looked at her softly, at least she thought it was softness, considering she couldn't see anything but blackness above his nose, thanks to the hood. "I'm sorry for yelling, it's just… this is a little new for me… what's your name?" He figured introductions should be in order, sooner than later. His first impression was already awkward enough as it was.
"Flora," she answered.
"Flora…" he repeated, sounding it out and nodding. "Cool name. I'm Corvin," he said, giving her a smile.
Her head tilted back a bit. "Corvin?" she asked. She had never heard of a name like that before, and the pronunciation sounded foreign to her. She wanted to ask what it meant, but he was already holding the map up for her to see.
"Anyways the map says the nearest town is that way, so…" he was cut off when he heard her say in a cold voice, "no". He turned to look at her, then saw she was on the ground, ready to pounce.
"your not taking me to your city, human!" she snarled, the claws on her fingers extending. Corvin was quick to act by holding his hands up. "Alright, alright, jeez, if you don't wanna go, you don't gotta go," He said, backing up.
Her eyes widened, claws retracting as her form grew lax "Really?" She sounded unsure, looking up to him as his hands fell to his side.
"Really,"he repeated in a genuine tone.
He would have sighed in relief had Flora not instantly jumped on him anyways, wrapping her arms around him and knocking them both to the ground. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She cried over and over, each utterance making Corvin more and more flustered.
"Uh, no problem?" he murmured, trying his best to look away. He was thankful the hood shadow covered his cheeks, because the last thing he wanted to see was him blushing.
They laid there in the grass for a whole minute before Corvin shuffled, grumbling, "can you please get off me? You're naked."
She immediately got up from him, Corvin sighing in relief. "Hey, Flora?"
"Yeah?" she looked back at him, seeing him grab something.
Well, now or never. He needed to get away for a bit, so he held up the blanket for her to see. "I only got the one blanket… and I'm not really tired, so here, rest up." He tossed her the blanket, Flora looking at the blanket in surprise, then at him.
"A-are you sure?" she didn't want to make him mad by taking the only blanket, but she was even more surprised when he waved her off. This human was just full of surprises, huh...
"Yeah, positive" he chuckled, settling next to a tree. She looked him over, then finally laid on the ground, covering herself with the blanket. "You have a weird name, you know," she muttered before closing her eyes. He only lightly chuckled in response.
He waited for her to sleep before looking at his hand, black tendrils swirling in them, blue light seeping from somewhere withing the mass. "Great, just great, Corvin," he numbly muttered, staring at his hand. "You've gotten yourself into something, haven't I? This is just..." he sighed deeply, holding his head. "I gotta figure out what's going on with whatever this is. First thing's first." He was gonna take this with baby steps, and testing out what that injection had did to his body, testing his limits, it seemed to be a good first step. He looked at Flora and resumed his mutterings. "And who's this girl? I know she's a different species, but she almost sounds and exactly like… Aya… glad she's asleep so she doesn't hear this."
He got up, seeing the sun starting to go down. "Well, happy birthday to me, I guess." He looked at the woods, walking to the greenery. "Well, I need to go test the extent of what I can do with this… should be back in an hour, give or take… well, I'm off."
He disappeared into the brush, leaving the clearing quiet. Except for Flora, who was breathing louder than someone sleeping should, thinking to herself, "who's Aya? And just what is he 'testing out'?" she let a yawn out, choosing to ask him about it later and drift off to sleep, unaware that a figure was watching her from a tree from above, waiting for the perfect moment to strike at the human…
A/N- So this is the heavily updated first chapter. I guess you could call it "Anomaly 2.0", but basically, yeah, this is it. If you've just recently found this story and the next five chapters seem much more different than this one, it means I haven't gotten to fixing those one's yet. If they seem alright or if there's a chapter seven that's not an author's note chapter, then by then it should be good.
So, with that said, cya.
