Thank you guys for reviewing my fanfic (even though I liken them to comments, because reviews are a lot more complex than that), I really appreciate it. Now this is a new 'Introductory' chapter, and, seeing how long this is, it's gonna reveal a bit more than the last chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it, and review if you wish. Harsh criticism of any mistakes is welcomed.
At the same time, Beowulf found himself rushing down familiar dark streets, passing below streetlights without any thought of directions, ignoring the clattering of The Hurting strapped behind his back. But why was he running around at such a night like this; a night where the star's gleam seemed to dim with a fearful retreat?
Because he knew Annie would be struck with dangerous luck.
His sweat trailed past him as he ran, heavy feet stomping on the concrete of Central Meridian. His chair seemed armed, ready to be taken out and used at the nick of time. His cape was adorned with an attitude to kill. Something was up, and he needed to get to Annie's house as fast as he could.
Taking one last turn, his eyes came to observe the little red brick house in the distance. It was very noticeable, seeing how the two other buildings by its side were giant skyscrapers, but her house was eerily dark. Maybe too dark for a girl who used powers of galactic, starry motif. Hesitating to rush into her house, the wrestler began to sneak quietly in the shadows- note that everyone could see him. He tiptoed closer to the house's little fence, before hopping over them- he broke the fence and fell- then approaching the house's little red door. But he stopped when he heard the door creak. Startled, he quickly crawled deeper into the shadows, escaping the eyes of the silhouette head poking out from the doorway.
Noticing the glimpse of an opportunity, he began to crawl, metaphorically on the tip of his fingers, towards the backyard. Reaching the back door, he entered into the humble abode with stealthy steps- The Hurting knocked over an antique vase- till he found himself in a quaint space he believed to be her living room. A rabbit doll was sitting stiffly on one of the couches, as if watching an advertisement. With absurdly long and stealthy steps, he quietly walked closer to the sofa, before slithering below the comfort object.
There was a loud gasp in the hallway outside after Beowulf had concealed himself, following with Annie entering the living room with a reddened, flustered face.
"Sagan, someone, or something knocked my mom's fudging vase on the ground! Did you see anyone do it?"
There was no answer, though; Sagan was not really able to talk, and her right eye, which seated itself comfortable in his mouth, did not transmit anything to her. Annie sighed with frustration, before grumbling quietly, "I'll clean it up later." She sat on her sofa and grabbed the bag of potato chips on the round wooden table. And there she sat for the second night of her unemployment, stuffing her face grumpily as she watched the advertisements for the new cartoon shows.
The ones that replaced her's.
"Argh," she groaned with a rage akin to one fired from his job- oh wait, that happened, "Is there anything good these days?"
"Nope, but this will be!"
As sudden as it can be, the sofa was lifted off the ground by the wrestler's strong arms, shocking the girl and letting the bag of snacks tumble down. Sagan only watched nonchalantly, as if part of the background, before sliding off the seat and landing on the deep-fried potatoes on the ground.
"Aroooooooo~!" he howled, "Surprise!"
What came next was a knock sound from above. He had held the sofa too high, and had knocked her skull on the low roof.
"BEOWULF!"
"Oh, sorry," he apologized light-heartedly as he set the sofa back to its place, taking a step back while at the same time barely missing the dust that trickled down the ceiling. He was met with a pout and a look of disappointment from his old co-worker.
"What are you doing here?" She asked. Before he could say anything, however, she again retaliated, "Were you the one who broke my fence and tipped my vase?"
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that..." Beowulf replied sheepishly, before answering the other question given, "Well, I came cos' I thought of keeping you company or somethin'."
"Do you want me to call the cops or kill you?"
"Not that way," he replied with an embarrassed red on his face, "I thought you needed to take out the stress of having our tv show taken down."
"Okay," she hopped down her couch with one hand massaging her aching head, "I'm calling the cops."
"W-wait! I came cos' I thought you'd do something real bad, like suicide or something!"
"Well, it doesn't look like it's happening, right? Now go home."
Unable to bear with the chore of walking back home, he began to reason with her. "Treat it like a surprise birthday or something. A one-man party with me and your doll!"
"A party with you and Sagan?"
"Yeah! So can I stay a bit? " Beowulf gave his own variation of the puppy eyes: he grew all cocky, and donned a silly smirk that tried its hardest to impress the girl. Annie rolled her eyes, softly clenched her teeth and veered her face away as if in deep thought, before nodding hesitantly, her one remaining orb keeping an irritated resolve.
"What do you even have for this 'party'?" she asked with suspicion, "What's this party even about?"
"Well..." Beowulf began to scratch the back of his neck, invoking more disappointment in the little girl, "I don't think this can be called a 'party', I just thought you needed some fun time to, you know, get the thought of being jobless off of ya."
She sighed once again.
"Wanna watch tv?"
"Ah, sure, I guess?"
And so the two sat on the small sofa. Annie and Sagan, that is. Out of disappointment, Beowulf was punished to not sit on the soft sofa, and he, tired from running a few districts down, did not hesitate to sit on his durable folding chair as comfort for his rump. Time passes rather slowly for Beowulf as he watched the shows she watched. There was no sense of tension or awkwardness in the atmosphere, although he knew she was somewhat lost due to his surprise appearance, seeing how the chips were unswept and the fence and vase were left unkempt.
There was much that happened in the past week: him coming out of retirement to beat the Skullgirl, a sudden conspiracy of his old wrestling enemy Grendel being drugged during the fight, and suddenly a monster by the name of Double impersonating a nun in a church where the Skullgirl once resided, and even his old business friend, whom he speculated to be dead. Truth be told, he had been ready to take revenge on the lies and beat the Skullgirl at the same time, but when he reached there, the only thing left of the church was a wreck. There a gaping hole on the ground, from to the basement leading to the roof, and no Skullgirl, much to his disappointment. He could remember his initial arrival, battling an angry ninja nurse of sorts, before entering the recently-destroyed church. And then there was that strange, weakened monstrosity: Double's true form, so to speak, that tried to kill him out of rage- maybe due to the church's destruction? Who knows- and the sudden appearance of other people that joined the brawl to take the monster down was also a surprising event that occured during the fight. It was safe to say that the monster was dead, and that it was the last he saw of those other fighters, along the last autographs he would ever sign.
Also, Annie was actually older than what she looked, which was astonishing, to say the least.
Now in the modern world, after the supposed disappearance of the Medici Family and the changes in the Canopy Kingdom royalty, Beowulf had expected major changes. There were headlines for her in the papers, but none of them revealed to him, or anyone, her face. Because of this, he had no insight of how he, or she, ruled- he had a tendency to judge people by appearances. But the cancellation of his and Annie's new collab show had come as an abrupt punch to the stomach. To summarize all that, the two had just went through a life changing journey, but were now as well-off as torn paychecks sitting inside a dumpster.
For now, the thought of unemployment and a hobo life was quickly shelved for another, more dire time, because Beowulf had come upon interesting subjects on the LED screen. While he watched the Discovery Channel with interest, picking up chips from the floor- which silently disgusted the girl- Annie was shuffling on her seat, as if uncomfortable for some reason. He noticed the behavior, and inquired of it. She only raised an open hand- a sign saying stop- in response before placing it on her chinny chin chin, delving into some depth of thought. Of what, Beowulf had not the slightest idea.
"Um, thinkin' about what to or something?" he asked again.
"Well," she looked up to him, "It's not like there's any harm done telling you this."
"Huh? You've got something to tell me? Is this one of your 'a long time ago' stuff, like the Skull Heart?"
"Well, yeah, it's about-"
A sudden intermission on the television screen cut her off, and visibly surprised her. A man in a large hall amongst a humongous crowd of rich men and women- evident by their style of awful glamour and fashion- was speaking all too enthusiastically of the revealing of their new 'Queen'.
"Oh, so it's a lady~?" Beowulf said, giving a whistle at the end. Annie's reply was to move closer to slap him hard on the back, which rewarded her with a grunt and a seated stumble that that amused her.
"I've already fought a Queen in the past, so this isn't sitting well for me..."
"Queen Nancy, right?" he asked cautiously as he adjusted his seating, massaging his back in the progress. Annie nodded solemnly in reply with no form of apology to his back pains, before eyeing on the television program.
"Nearly died trying to subdue her..."
Beowulf, having moved past the ache, made a soft 'yeah' before he lowered his massaging hand and laid his eyes on the screen, watching every movement, listening to every chatter and cheer, and tasting every salt speck on the slice of fried tuber he feasted. It was rare for him to be so analytical of a sight. Maybe it was the mood that affected his thoughts and focus? Or was it the effort of ignoring Sagan and the forever-seeing blind eye in his mouth that had made him so conscious of so many things?
And then, the grand reveal happened.
Clapping resonated from the speakers as the many hundreds of the higher-class were enthralled by their new Queen unveiling herself from behind the red curtain. Her waltz rhymed with the applause, and her confident smile called to the many politicians in the audience for a government of strong, just rule. She swept the floor not only with the sense of authority, but also her beauty. Her slender hands and fingers. Her beautiful body that seized every man's gaze. Her luscious hair that gleamed in the spotlight. She was more like a supermodel than a queen.
One who had supposedly become Queen instead of the Renoir Family.
It was big news when a new ruler had ascended the throne; much more was the controversy surrounding it: of how this person was related to the sudden disappearance of Medici Mafia activity, to how he- or as it was known now, she- obtained the rights to the throne from the King and the Princesses Parasoul and Umbrella. How could this beauty do all that? Beowulf was sorely surprised by this, but was secretly excited to see this new Queen.
In other news, there was also that incident involving a few districts of New Meridian being destroyed by some skirmish involving a giant titan of blood and the Skullgirl herself- a battle Beowulf wished, in his dreams, he was there to see. Now why didn't anyone bat an eye on that?
"Wait..." Beowulf muttered, straightening himself as a realization dawned in him that nearly blowing his mind into bits by the sudden discovery, "Isn't that Eliza from Bastet's Den?"
Annie perked up when she heard him, and asked, "Who?"
Beowulf was visibly surprised when he heard her confusion of Eliza's identity, so he quickly explained with a sense of disbelief, "She's the most famous diva of New Meridian! Beautiful voice, great performances, hot body, everything else that makes a lady good! She's been in the showbiz for nearly twenty years, AND she had a charity blood bank! I LOVE her albums, too! It's impossible for you not to know her!"
"Hmm... Sounds familiar, but I've never went to Bastet's Den. Maybe that's why."
"Seriously? Wow, you must be living under a rock..."
"Don't wolves live in caves?" she replied with a playful intention.
"Hey, caves are comfy if you've got the right stuff, 'kay..."
"You lived in a cave?"
"Once, for a horror flick... Ever watched 'Wolf from the Meridian'? Yeah, the crew didn't have a studio. I had to live in a cave for a day, cos' the freaking cam guy kept missing my good sides!"
She couldn't help but lightly scoff. The thought of the unemployment predicament quickly dissipated from both of their minds as they continued their small conversation in the midst of televised cheers and at the beginning of their new Queen's speech.
"Welcome, citizens of the Canopy Kingdom." There were a few claps from every man and woman in the crowd. "My name is Eliza, and as your new Queen, I declare the arrival of a new age, an era of rule that will drive the Canopy Kingdom to greater heights!" Her speech rallied the crowd together with her, and their cheers intensified.
"Heh, she's nearly as good as me when it comes to the crowd," said Beowulf. Annie rolled her eyes sarcastically in reply.
"With the Black Egret's loyalty on me, I will assure this Kingdom peace from the Medici, and from any dangers the world will throw at us. Today shall be a day more glorious than any other days. A day of celebration, and a day of feast of the many in attendance today." There was a short pause, for the crowd to calm down, before she continued, "I understand your concerns of the Renoir Family. As a matter of fact, they have one last message for their loyal subjects," turning to the bird-man at the corner, she commanded, "Open the broadcast, Horace."
There was a distant 'yes, madam', before a large projector slide unfolded behind her, ending with a short bounce. The projector began to... well, project what it had been tasked to do. No one could believe that anything of any concern was unfolding, so the many aristocrats who waited for the machine to work only chuckled amongst themselves of trivial entertainment. Even Beowulf and Annie had begun to relax upon the sofa.
The sight of a dungeon cell made every watcher's heart leap violently. The camera began to inch to one side, before turning with full force, wobbling what could be seen and revealing a chained Parasoul and Umbrella hanging on their hands with their legs sprawled on the ground.
"What...?" Beowulf asked with his mouth full with a chip, confused as to if what he was seeing was real or a sick joke. Annie's one eye began to widen till one could say they were metaphorically 'as large as plates'. Sagan's one eye blinked.
Parasoul, who was visibly sleeping with an agonizing expression, moaned, "A... Annie... Save me..."
Beowulf and Annie turned to each other with an awkward but lost expression.
The embarrassing sleeping habit got the awake Umbrella to don a salty pout. She whispered spitefully to her sister to wake up, and when she did, there was noticeable strains of exhaustion all over her body. It took her some time, and a few questions aimed at her sister, for her to notice the camera in front of her. In a pathetic state, she turned to the people watching, and muttered direly, "Everyone...
"Run..."
The live coverage fizzled into static. Everyone, including the two watching the screen, froze. Eliza turned to her audience and, with a sadistic smile, said:
"Now wasn't that nice?"
The whole place burst into a panicked uproar. The man operating the camera turned to the nearest exit along with nearly every man and woman. There was chaos caught on tape, but then, as the camera came close to the door, a rival swarm of Black Egret soldiers appeared and blocked the exit, with two in the front holding large plastic tower shields. The many panicking audience began to beat on them but they never flinched or faltered in their step, but one, whom donned no mask at the moment, was in tears, whimpering, 'If I don't do this, she'll die', before going into a repeated cycle of apologies.
Then, almost instantaneously, the aristocratic class of the society began to crumple, as if being weaned from blood, and fell to the ground like dried leaves. A rather loud scream- presumably the camera man's- echoed into a pitiful gasp of air. The camera began to descend, but not before being picked up by an unseen hand. It was carried over the hall, extraordinarily above the scene, conveniently giving a bird-eye view of the horrifying death and bodies. Slowly, it floated down and turned to Eliza's face.
"Welcome to a new rule," she said, before, gruesomely, her face began to split in half, revealing the skull below. The disgusting sounds of flesh tearing into two gave Annie a gag reflex. The horrific visage beneath the flesh was but a fuel for potent nightmares. It had the likeness of a cat, and large canines. The eyes in the darkness of the hollow dome blinked with the skull's sinister grin.
"Welcome to the Rule of Neferu...!"
Then, the screen began to flood with red from the sides, like blood seeping between the lenses. The broadcast then suddenly stopped, and again static filled the screen.
"..."
"..."
Beowulf's mouth hung open in the splendor of horror, letting a small bit of a mushed potato chip fall to his legs with a splat. Annie's one eye widened to cartoonish levels, with absurdly small pupils to match. Her eyes were so wide that it seemingly creased her lower eyelid, but really that was just the dread that piled into her eye bags.
Beowulf broke the silence with a gulp, and said in the ominous atmosphere, "Okay, so she just killed a few hundred people; b-big deal... And her name's Neferu...? Also, her skeleton's ugly as heck..."
He looked over to the girl beside her, only to notice her shaking hands and twitching eyes.
"Neferu..." she whispered with a tone of distraught, lowering her head to stare at the ground. It was as if she was in a trance at this moment. She seemed to recognize her from the 'Neferu' name?
"We need to get out of here, Beowulf."
The statement confused him.
"What?" he inquired as she rose from her seat, "Out of the Kingdom or something?"
"Yes. Didn't you see how powerful she was?"
"Pfft," he blew air out of his closed lips, "The only thing she did was kill a few hundred people. The Wulf can take her down!"
"Tsk," she clicked her tongue, "Remember the red blood at the church?"
"Uh," he began to remember, "Yeah. What about it?"
"Beowulf, from the broadcast, you've seen her manipulate blood," she explained, turning her gaze to him, "She was there before us. Eli- no, Neferu- destroyed the church!"
"Wait, what's up with you and Eli- I mean, Neferu?"
The sounds of a couple of cars parking outside cut the two off their conversation. An unfamiliar gruff, yet muffled voice from outside commanded the two to come out with their hands in the air. Black Egrets were at her doorsteps.
"Uh," Beowulf began to speak as he was coaxed away from the windows by Annie, "Don't worry, the Wulf's gonna- oh crap, I see guns."
With a quick snatch of Sagan, the girl turned and began to sprint away, exclaiming to the wrestler, "MOVE!"
He subconsciously complied, but before he could move a single step, the window behind the television broke, throwing little shards and shrapnel to the ground, allowing a Black Egret soldier carrying a menacing gun ready on hand to crash the party. With quick, instinctive thinking, Beowulf grabbed the sofa beside him and, with the strength he accumulated in so many years, threw it at the intruder, pinning the soldier to the wall and causing him to slip into unconsciousness. But that did not stop the flood of soldiers from breaking in through the other windows around the house.
Beowulf hastily exited with the Hurting strapped back on his back, but found that he had lost sight of the girl of the stars and her doll parasite. He swiftly stumbled through the rooms, checking to see if she was in one of them, while avoiding bullets from the Black Egret soldiers. The sounds of metal balls colliding with his folding chair nearly gave him a heart attack every time he heard the mind-rattling sounds and felt the bullet's sound barrier-breaking forces.
"Annie?!" he called anxiously before entering the last door, only to be given a reply when the very door he had gotten ready to burst in opened, to reveal a hand that pulled him inside. He was now on the ground, with the door closing with a bang behind his back and the sound of a lock following it. Panting and placing a hand on his beating heart, he wondered if he was unscathed from head to feet. Of course, The Hurting had many a dents, but he could fix that with a few well-aimed hammer taps.
"You okay, Beowulf?" asked Annie as she pulled him off the floor. He shook himself back to his senses, before replying with a yes, only to flinch and jump away from the door as the sounds of a twisting door knob echoed around their ears. The entity behind the door began to bang on the wooden barrier. The wrestler gulped. He could not fight with guns. And the door was but a temporary defense. It would not be long before they shot the knob unusable and barge in to arrest them.
"They..." spoke Annie, who had detached from the wrestler and begun rummaging through drawers, "Are after me. Neferu knows about me. I think she sees me as a threat." It was then that Beowulf noticed that he was in her room.
"But how? You met her before or something?"
"Beowulf, she's older than me, so she knows of my affiliation with the Skullgirl." She veered her attention to the contents of one of her drawers as she spoke, pulling out a sword at the last word.
"Wait, you're saying she's an old hag or somethin'?"
She grumbled quietly at the insult, that seemed to involuntarily targeted her as well, but she only replied audibly with a sigh and continued her preparations with a collected demeanor, placing her blade between her fanny pack's strap and her body. "I have no time to explain. We need to get out of here first before getting out of the Kingdom."
"How? We can't just run, we'll-"
As he spoke, Annie walked to Sagan, patted his back, and took a step back. Beowulf had a word snagged on his throat when Sagan suddenly turned into what looked like a miniature scooter. Its ears became long like handles, but there was only enough space for one person's two feet on the bunny doll's body.
A hard slam on the door frightened him out of his trance. With his astonishment gone, his eyes took note of the lack of a seat he could sit on. There seemed to be only a small foothold big enough for Annie's feet, and nothing else. How were they going to escape on that? With the Sagan-scooter, it became a mandatory task to leave everyone behind, with only the driver being able to travel and escape.
"H-hey," he stammered, "What about me?!"
"Take this." A rope landed on his hands. He stared, dumbfounded, at the fibrous coils, before returning his gaze to the girl. "You know what to do, right?" she added.
Beowulf had the urge to shake his head, really badly. He wanted to convey to her that he himself was in the dark with, what he presumed to be, her plan. Where did she even get the rope? He gulped and gathered his thoughts as she tied the rope on Sagan's little fluffy tail, still finding it hard to understand the supposed use of the utility item; but before he could ask her if its purpose, a tremor shook the ground and silenced their tensed throats. The sound of creaking floorboards signaled the arrival of something or maybe even someone massive in gait. There was quite a chatter outside, before it all went silent. The two froze in place, unsure whether or not they were gone.
BLAM!
The door blasted into splinters and smoke. Beowulf held his breath and raised his arms, protecting his torso from blocks of wood and his lungs from smoky gunpowder. But the figure in front of him made him seem paltry and meagre in comparison. A towering foe came through the door, crashing through the walls with his extraordinarily huge shoulders. His little legs crushed the boards with his weight. There was a cannon on his left arm that was so heavy it silently strained it, constantly being admonished by his muscles to silence the strains and show how weightless it was to enemies and allies alike. His breathing was hoarse with his menacing mask on his face.
Beowulf turned pale when he looked up to face the barrel of the cannon, and gulped. His grip on the rope tightened as the adrenaline went through his body, till his fist was turning purple. Seeing the impending disaster, Annie 'revved' Sagan-scooter's ears, before screaming for the Parasite to move. Turning to the closest window, the Parasite jumped and crashed through the glass, with the rope whipping up and down its tail. Beowulf was ripped off the ground as he was pulled to the same broken window, seconds before the giant Black Egret's cannon fired, kicking up more charred splinters and dust.
Beowulf crashed back down to Earth after he exited the house. As he regained his senses, he found himself on his back, with The Hurting kicking up sparks on the tar road. His arms were raised high from his head, still grasping on the rope. The bright streetlights above him blinded his eyes for a second at a time. Turning his head down, he saw the slowly-shrinking house he had found comfort in mere moments before being burned in a blaze of embers. Anguish began to churn in his stomach, but he kept silent of its sickening presence.
Annie was silent as she kept her eyes to the road. She thought if she had been a thousand years younger, she would have cried for the loss of her house, as much as she would have over the loss of her mother in the Skull Heart's influence. There was no need to use more time explaining. They needed to hide from the dangers of the new Ruler's iron grasp and hundred eyes.
But what was to become of the Kingdom, now?
Sagan-scooter began to slow down after some time. Its pit-patting foot rhythm slowed to a crawl as the two entertainers, with mouths sealed, entered a dark alleyway. Upon reaching the end of the narrow pass, Annie stepped down from Sagan-scooter's platform, and Beowulf began to tend to Hurting's condition. Miraculously, the seat suffered minor scratches and burns, but that was second to all that was swimming around his brain at the moment. Sagan quickly turned back into a doll, before being carried around on the ear by the girl. The anxious droplets of sweat streaming down Annie's face, like rain in a painting, was quickly wiped away by her free hand's backside.
"We need to keep going," she muttered while facing away from Beowulf, taking his attention away from his chair, "We need to get out of the Canopy Kingdom."
"Annie, can you just calm down?"
"No, Beowulf," she shook her head with disappointment and agitation, "You don't freaking understand. She was there..."
"Where?"
"When my mom became the Skullgirl." Beowulf cringed somewhat at the new topic, and saw it best to keep silent while she talked. "Well, she wasn't really there at first, but the history books told of her existence. Of the skeletal Parasite Sekhmet, and of her tyrannical rule on the world. They said she was dead. Killed by a rebellion, but it seems now that she wasn't. But she looked so different. She wasn't like what the text described her as..." Regaining a part of her collective thought, she breathed deeply, before turning to him, with a frown of pained, burning anger. "I don't know what to do now, Beowulf... I can't beat her; she's too strong for you and me. She will drain us of every drop of blood before anything else can happen..."
Beowulf kept silent. There was, notably, an over-saturation of closed lips and unspoken words, but what was the punishments for that? Beowulf understood her pains. Was there anything else to go back to? What of the Black Egrets, who might be looking for them right this moment? What of their journey that was to come? He groaned as he found himself unable to find an answer. He was used to quick, easy speeches, but now he was lost. And so was the City. So was the Kingdom. Lost like a lone wolf without a pack...
Wait a second... Eureka!
"Haha!" Unexpectedly, the wrestler gave a haughty laugh, and puffed out his chest in a declaration of confidence. He straightened in his posture, which stretched himself taller, and brushed back his hair. What was this unwonted amount of confidence the wrestler dished out? Had he a plan in mind?
"Come on, Annie, a wolf doesn't hunt alone. We just need more people, that's all! A pack of 'Wulves' to beat down that blood bender!"
"But is it really that simple?!" she hiss in retaliation, "Who's gonna help us at a time like this?"
"What about those guys that helped us kill that thing back at the Church of the Trinity?" Noticing a change of tone in her one eye, he continued, "We can just go look for them!"
"Beo, they never told us anything about themselves. They left before we could ask anything." True, the 'Warriors' that aided them in the fight with that monstrosity left as quickly as they arrived; but Beowulf had many ways around this predicament.
"Don't worry, I just need to get on to centre stage! That's what the Wulf's all about! It'd be like running for President!"
"If we could do that, what stage can we get?" she asked, crossing her arms. Her eyes began to leer. Beowulf gulped: she was starting to lose interest.
"Don't worry, it'll happen!"
"Beowulf, this isn't some fudging trivial, everyday thing! This is the takeover of a whole Kingdom! By a tyrant a few thousand years old! Why can't you understand that?"
"Annie, this is your home! Your turf!" His voice rose and incorporated a thicker air of confidence and invigoration, "We just need to bring out the Alpha to tell them to stop sitting and start growling and gnashing like the real wolves they are!"
"These are civilians! Scared people who don't know where to go, what to do! Are you sure it'd be easy to even rally them-" a foreign scream cut in through her speech. Then, there were more than just screams. There were cries for help, angered retaliations, and muffled commands.
Peeking out of the alleyway, the two eyed a faraway commotion. Black Egrets were pouring into buildings, as if searching for-
"They're looking for us. We've got a price on our heads," said Annie, with a tone of graveness mixed in her voice.
They watched as the soldiers drove out the homely residence from their houses and sleep, with no hesitation to using force to pull the innocent from their homes. There were some that fought back in the streets, but they were quickly silenced with a well-aimed ball of violence from the soldier being affected by the weak assault. These heavily-clad men were fervid with their movement around the streets, that one must begin to think if they were just loyal to Eliza and saw it fit to please her; but in the wake of so much movement and disorder, Beowulf saw it as desperation. He remembered the weeping Black Egret soldier who blocked the exit during the broadcast, and immediately realized the problems. There was a belligerent force that pushed their loyalty upon the tyrannical queen- for what other explanation could suffice, other than this one? The Egrets were fiercely loyal to Parasoul, so there was no reason for them to bow down and lick Eliza's foot. Was there some form of threat, or blackmail upon them? His brain was not capacious enough to find an answer, unfortunately, so he halted the thought and continued watching.
Suddenly, Annie pushed him to the wall, narrowly avoiding the sight of one rushing Black Egret. Seeing this as a signal of danger, the two moved further into the alleyway, camouflaging themselves as black figures in the dark.
"Well," Annie whispered under her breath, "Considering that they're breaking in everyone's home, and that Eliza already established herself as a monster, maybe the people do have something against her... Your plan might work, if you take in the possibility that everyone would hate her way of rule..."
"Don't worry," said Beowulf, with an arrogant tone, "Pack or no pack, we'll one day take her down."
"WHO'S THERE," cried the soldier that once went past them, who had picked up their voices from the alleyway. The two cringed, and Annie cupped Beowulf's mouth shut as the Egret began to cautiously walk between the building walls. Fortunately, he made the grave mistake to look behind a lone dumpster at the far end, receiving a slam in the face, that cracked his visor and knocked out his consciousness. Unfortunately- however- Beowulf made the grave mistake to not use his fist.
"BEOWULF!" Annie hissed, while her fingers blocked her ears from the deafening metallic onomatopoeia, "They're going to hear you!"
"Oh, sorry."
"Did somebody say Beowulf!" cried a faraway soldier, "I want his autograph, and him in chains, NOW!"
Their lips froze for a few precious seconds, before Beowulf had the audacity to break the silence and say:
"They heard you, not me." He was rewarded with a back-side of her sword on the head.
The many soldiers outside began to surround the entrance to the dark abode. But before any could enter, the few who were just meters away from where the walls parted were blasted away by stars and dark-blue slashes. Annie then followed suit, crashing through the crowd with Sagan-scooter in her control. Beowulf had, sadly, little time to discuss of his own mode of transport, and had to tie the rope- a great improvement from tirelessly holding it- on to his folding chair. He was now surfing the streets with his back on the makeshift surfboard.
During all this, none of the Black Egrets fired. Most of the soldiers were attending to those who were affected by the barrages, and others were stunned by the abrupt parting of the Egret 'Sea'. It was only after they travelled a considerable distance away did they begin to rethink their actions. They turned, guns resting confidently on their shoulders, before firing. But they had gone too far for any gun to be accurate enough to reliably hit their mark, and all their gunpowder was wasted on the road or the walls.
There was no clear path for the two to know where to go; no route could be seen in the sandstorm that clouded their choices. Should they declare themselves self-exiles of the Kingdom, or were they to stay until time had forgotten them, where they will someday emerge with a new presence plastered over their brittle, rotting ones? The questions were endless for the two. Were they really going to follow Beowulf's plan: to rally those who were willing to fight for a cause, or could they follow Annie, and abandon their homes, their sense of belonging, to a foreign land away from this place's influence? Both considered their choices to be superior- it is human to be selfish of their own personal preferences- but both found themselves torn in half by what to do. Because when driving with the moonlit night watching them with omnipotence, the mind opens to the calmness, no matter the past calamities, and questions the blind cannot see arise.
Questions that Time's ticking clock cannot answer.
Okay, funny story. Remember the 'She's been in the showbiz for nearly twenty years,' part? Well, I write on my phone, and auto-correct can be a total douche sometimes. I accidentally spelled 'showbiz' wrongly while I was writing that sentence, but I never noticed. When I reread the paragraph, it said, 'She's been in the SHOEBOX for nearly twenty years'. That killed me. Worse was that I was at church at the time, so when I snickered, everyone could hear me. It was embarrassing, but how could you not laugh at the image of a mini Eliza in a shoebox, holding a sigh saying 'Will sing for shelter'. Other than that, see you next week for another chapter. Rate and review.