Transitions
In this story, I did something very different. With Milo (Finland) as the main character, it is set in the far future. It is completely Drabble, and while a lot is explained, a lot is left up to question. Once again, a mere scrawl of my mind. Enjoy~
Milo was unique. Still is, actually. Only now... Far more than before. He is beyond an inter-dimensional traveler, he's bashed through that standard. He's more of a Realm Traverser, I think. The only problem is, he doesn't know it.
...
Half lidded eyes saw nothing, their body slumped against a wall. Deaf ears escaped the screams, shots, boots crashing against toned metal floors. A frozen smile never relented in its joy. It was a good day.
The blood splattered against once grey walls added a nice touch. It was like graffiti, unwanted by the owners of the wall, but loved by the viewers.
It was a good day.
...
Milo turned a harsh corner, the sound of blood rushing in his ears nearly as loud as the hideous bellows that snapped at his heels.
His eyes saw red, as his body slid in slick blood. Crashing into a mangled corpse, the small blond sunk his teeth into his bottom lip to keep a yelp from escaping his panicking body.
It was coming, he could hear claws scrabbling across hard surface in excited chase. Smearing his face with the discarded liquid, Milo dragged the dead man from his comfortable spot, onto his own thinner frame. He held still, so still. Breath hardly dared to quiver from his lungs. The beast howled, crashing into a wall as it hit the turn too fast. It recovered within seconds, mind never leaving its hunt.
Milo could barely see from the corner of his eye, this creature. It's spine was twisted, broken, and it walked on all fours like a hound. Long claws sprang from its feet, like hooks shoved into the tips of ones fingers. Beyond that, Milo could hardly describe it. It was disgusting, random assortments of bits and pieces shoved oddly in ever which way.
The creature snuffled around, lapping at the blood on the floor. It relished the scent of death, but the smell of breath to steal was far more enticing. Milo almost retched as it drew far too close to him. It's mouth traced across the body above him, which it ripped away with a smirk.
"Found you~" it gnashed it's splintered teeth, preparing to rip Milo's pretty little head right off of his shoulders.
"Milo!" A shot fired, tearing the creature from its prize. It hit the opposite wall solidly, screeching. A larger man tore down the hall way, his gun positioned to continue fire if needed.
"No, no don't please!" Milo struggled to turn, warn his savior, but it was far too late. The beast screamed with delight, it's feral eyes blazing as it used the wall like a launch pad. The man hardly had time to scream before it was upon him, using claws to slice, teeth to crush, tail to bludgeon.
Milo stared in sheer terror as the monster snapped up bone, meat, organ alike. Dancing, it trampled its glorious feast. But it suddenly froze, shaking on its skinny limbs. A horrible retch rolled from its belly, vomiting up a pool of dank purple ooze. The ooze wasted no time, it spread itself throughout the carcass. Gurgling, the corpse began to cackle like a hyena. It rose up, tripping over itself in its insanity.
The original creature whooped, circling its little art project. "My beauty, my lovely, the light of my eye!" It purred, then stopped without a moment's notice. Its head turned to face Milo, disturbing face plastered with a grin. "My Son~" it greeted, putting one paw in front of the other, painstakingly slow.
The other creature barked appreciation, unable to follow just yet. Its body was still forming, tissues reconnecting senselessly.
Milo could hardly move fast enough for himself. He would not be satisfied if he had broken the sound barrier in his frantic escape. His surroundings were a blur, he did not care. All he had to do was reach the end of the hall, that's it, a straight forward path.
He could feel hot breath on his skin, caressing the back of his neck, the ghost of teeth clamping onto his delicate body.
A second set of pursuing feet told him that his peril had just doubled. But he was so close...
"You're mine!" Milo was tackled mercilessly to the ground, skidding for a few moments over the floor. He was flipped harshly, now face to face with a mad beast. It held him there, staring. The newly made mate soon caught up, still clumsy. "Milo, Milo!" The mate cackled. "Watch out, be careful!"
Scooting ever so close, the original monster's head tilted far beyond natural ability. "Milo, Milo?" It repeated. "Hah! Devast, Devast!"
From behind, the other spoke once more, high pitched and squeaky. "Snare, Snare!"
Devast and Snare, as they were named, cut off their laughter. Milo's breathing had grown rugged, vision blurred with what he prayed were tears.
Their smiles had vanished, replaced with blank looks.
"What..?" Milo managed to gasp out, but his voice was soon lost as jaws delicately encircled his throat. "I'll make it quick, just for you, Son." Devast whispered, voice gentle and kind.
Milo clamped his eyes shut, and a crunch was the last thing he heard.
...
His body was floating, and it was inevitable that a small grin formed on his soft face. Fuzzy voices tickled his ears, he could hardly make out what they were saying. "Open your eyes, it's time to wake up, Milo..." They whispered, voices sweet like cream.
Well... When they put it like that...
Milo was violently ripped into reality. There was a deafening blaring in his ears, red lights crashed around him erratically. His flesh felt numb, and he trembled as if possessed. Looking across his body, it was painted with foreign blood, the same purple mess that had stolen one of his peer's body. The small man scrambled backwards, wailing despite himself. He didn't get far, a wall collided with his back, stopping him.
Taking a moment to calm himself, Milo recognized the hall, the smell, the alarm. Turning his head to look back down the hallway, he saw destroyed bodies, sizzling and burning away. A shaking hand rose to his throat, and he nearly sobbed as he felt large gash marks. But he was not dead... No, the gashes were not deep enough to kill him. Taking his hand away from the devastated area, Milo stood on shaking legs.
He approached the dead creatures, sick curiosity possessing his movements. Upon closer inspection, he saw that these were the dead Devast and Snare. Their faces were still images of stricken panic. Flesh and bone melted together in their centers, a hollow cavity streaked with some vile new liquid. A dripping noise caught Milo's attention, causing him to look directly downwards. On the floor below him rested more of this oddity that had killed the creatures. It hissed and spat, vicious in its nature. Ever so slowly, Milo reached towards his mouth, and whimpered as he felt something wet touch his fingers. Pulling this substance away from him, Milo examined it. Acid. It was acid.
There was acid dripping from his mouth. Suddenly woozy, Milo spun around, heading towards the exit. He barely made it to the door before collapsing.
(...)
The Intergalactic Navy, or I.N., was a fine organization. Wide spread, it worked like a government, with power spread between several branches and factions alike. It functioned simply to protect the common people of known existence. Any subordination or corruption was stomped out... As soon as awareness of said corruption was had.
Unfortunately for Milo, this had not happened yet with his particular circumstance. And it never would.
(...)
Milo was a simple man, one with a not so simple destiny. But that didn't bother him, not at all. He wasn't one to complain, after all. Not even after his own faction betrayed him, for one simple jewel supposedly worth more than their lives.
He was trapped in his own room, with more hope for death than escape. He wished that he had never come across this glowing rock. He want sure where it had even come from. He had been on a mission, a rather rugged one, and he was shot down. When he came to, the gem was secured in his hands. Milo did not understand it's purpose, but it was clear to him that it could not be good. Not from the greedy looks of those around him. Only a few good men protested the other's actions. Of course, their words held little worth in this war of gods and money.
The small blond barricaded himself away in his room, praying to the stars and back that the other men would come to see reason. It was only when his Commander's voice rang over the other's that he felt relief. The Commander was a sensible man, one Milo had known for a long time.
But as he exited his safe room... Milo learned that something far more sinister had been going on. It was no coincidence that he ended up with the gem. The Commander had ordered it to be delivered to him through trustworthy Milo in some manner or another. It was a due for some massive debt owed to the Commander. It was to be sold as a weapon of mass destruction... How, the Commander did not know nor care. He was glad that Milo had not just handed it over to some random crew-man. Less happy when Milo refused to turn it over to him like a good little Navy man should.
Traitor, he was called. Disobeying the Commander was a high treason. Especially when false information said that Milo had even gone as far as to stab the Commander to keep his 'stolen wealth'.
News had been spread that day, as Milo ran off, that he had stolen a sacred artifact of some sort, and planned on selling it, killing any who got in his way. Vicious pain gripped Milo as his simple life was torn apart. No longer was Milo the kind little sharp shooter he had been known to be. No, he was a runaway convict, his mind eaten away by greed.
Milo could only tell himself that he was doing what was right... There was something about this rock that just emanated trouble. His gentle hands could contain it, though... Lust and pleasure for war did not poison his mind.
The criminalized man could not run forever. No, the I.N. would not just see that a single man escaped them. Milo was captured in a timely manner, and sent off to a ship in the farther reaches of desolate space, a place he did not know. This ship was very efficient... It doubled as a prison and laboratory. Milo could guess what sort of experiments were conducted there.
It was upon arrival that he and the men dragging him along had realized something was wrong. Milo had little choice but to be dragged along as the officials investigated. He lucky he was that they were there, for their meat and bones acted as a distraction for Milo to run. Whatever happened, he still had the gem. Whatever happened, he was free.
...
An experiment had gone horribly wrong. A special sort of gel had been made by the scientists, one that could fix broken machinery by reconnecting hardware and what not. It was highly intelligent in a sense, learning as it was introduced to the environment needing fixing. A true miracle product, that would save both time and lives.
Of course... They had to take it a step further. A corpse was all they needed. One lucky prisoner's suffering was cut off early, in a way, as he was chosen. His fit body was the perfect testing grounds. Once implemented, the gel worked against itself in this new environment. It reacted horribly with living cells, creating a cancer of itself. At this point, it shut down entirely, refusing to function any longer. It needed to sort itself out, learn...
The body adjusted soon enough. Perhaps not in the most logical way, but in the whole mess, things had become mixed up. The gel was compensating as well as it could.
But it fed on memory as much as it did DNA. This prisoner's memories were particularly horrific... His final desire was to wipe the universe clean of those who had wronged him... For, like Milo, he was falsely accused and shoved away in a dark corner to be forgotten.
The gel saw the supposed purpose of this man's mind, took it into consideration. It had no moral, no sense of wrong or right. It was merely fulfilling this 'machinery's purpose.
It did so with a ruthlessness. By the end of the day, there was hardly a single living thing left of the ship, and by the end of a few day cycles, the ship itself would be no more. The core was sabatogaged, and would implode.
This was for the best, of course. All along, it had been.
...
Milo could not remember. But he could feel. His muscles burned with a fire, as if they had been ripped and shredded. Blood gushed from his scalp, over his face. His hands fumbled with themselves, they held something dear to him within them.
What had happened, the blond wondered. A few fuzzy images of blurred faces appeared within his thoughts, none spared enough time to be worth anything to him.
"Give it..." the voice tore apart his mental reality, ripping open his dulled eyes. No, he could not see... His eyes were gone. They were black pits in his skull, reminders of what had once been. "I'll say it one more time... GIVE ME THE STONE!" a sickening crunch below him brought forth a thought, one of the cruel beast that had wanted to snap his neck. Now, he had a cruel beast cracking his bones. He couldnt tell which, it didn't matter anyhow. All it did was hurt, where changed nothing.
"I don't have it!" he sang, voice full of rusted vigor. "It's gone, I destroyed it..." he was a terrible liar.
"boy, lyin' won't get you anywhere." the throaty voice snapped right next to his conciousness. "you're lucky we need that little tongue of yours for now, because when I get the chance, I'm snipping it off."
Milo smiled to himself. He loved his voice, it was soft like caramel. "it's in my hand."
His hand was grabbed quite roughly, followed by the other. "what did I say about lyin, huh?"
"ah, not so fast..." Milo took his hands from his soon to be killer's grasp. Looking at the back of his hand, he sighed, and a small sheet fell off of his skin. It matched his skin tone precisely until it fell away, in which it grew more of a metallic look to it. The maddened Milo tore it open, releasing a molecular flattened gem with monstrous capabilities.
"I'll be..." Milo heard a soft sheen of metal, he had expected nothing less, and he nearly relished the smooth slide of the blade as it neatly sliced through his innards. Blood was displaced, shoved from its home. It searched for new territory, trailing upwards. Milo's mouth was transformed into a small and slow flowing volcano of red.
A gasp was heard, but Milo had already faded to the back of his mind, waiting for his weakened self to give out and let him run free. The scent of burning skin left a disgusting taste in his mouth, but he couldn't complain. However... The scream that did not even belong to him crashed into his ears, marking the last thing he would ever hear. He was a little dissapointed in this, truly he had hoped to hear music of some sort, sending him off to meet the next world.
Damn space pirates, curse their thieving and cruel ways.
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...
"Ah... Ahhahah, so you are the holder of the gem... Simply gorgeous." a voice like that of rumbling quakes, tumbling mountains, far away explosions blasted through Milo's reality. It rocked him to his very core.
Dark eyes shot awake, a mind reborn. His lungs drew deep breaths, relishing the feeling of living. Before him, a sight his mind had trouble processing.
It was a beast as large as a star yet small as man, as if it couldn't hold one solid form, and was constantly switching around. It's back was torn apart by monstrous jagged crystals. Crystals just like the one Milo had given up his life to protect, like the one that still remained in his hand.
The unstable being was nothing short of a dragon. It's scales and staggering teeth reflected sourceless light, despite the surroundings being more empty than the wastelands of space. Wings of unimaginable proportion stretched farther than Milo could perceive, tattered in all of their glory. Adorning the Dragon's head were horns, regal and deadly.
Rumbling laughter nearly shattered perceived reality as the drake studied Milo. "Oh, you poor thing." it said, drawing near enough to Milo to touch him. The blond in question was frozen stiff, suspended without physical law. He could not move or even speak if he wanted to. But his frantic heartbeat expressed what his mouth could not. The massive dragon reached out a clawed hand, ever so delicately taking Milo in his grasp. He studied the small human down to the last visible detail, it seemed, scrutinizing over his body.
"How could one so small handle my power without so much as a flinch...?" Again, laughter echoed across endless space. "So silly of me... I picked you in particular, and it pleases me greatly that you managed to make it this far. You have always pleased me, yes... But as much as I would love to..." Teeth drastically dwarfing Milo were within inches of colliding with his skin. So desperately did the young man wish to dart away, to leave behind whatever mysterious hell this was.
"I cannot keep you here... Oh, precious Milo... Stay safe, would you? I dread seeing your desirable little life fade once more. " A jaw capable of crushing small planets wavered in front of his face, questioning their next move.
"Ohh, but how I love to hear your bones crunch..." the dragon purred to himself, giving into his desires. He moved with sudden intensity, craving the body he eviscerated within his jaws.
Milo was seized up, snapped into a maw more than able to accommodate him. He did not agree with the shattered drake, the sound of his bones crippling beneath great force did not please him. Nor did the overall displacement of his torn bits and pieces. It did not last long, however, as a darkness far deeper than death consumed him.
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All across these ancient lands, a cry rang out. Not all would be able to hear, but those that did would be stricken. For this wail was not of their world.