AN: Okay, I'd like to take a moment to address a very rude reviewer. You know what, if you don't like my story, that's your business. Unlike you, I support freedom of speech. But to insult me so bluntly, without any constructive criticism? You really are an asshole. That was uncalled for and if you hate so much, there's always the back button. We're 4 chapters in at this point. If you think it's bad, DON'T read it! You're really not being funny you know, and I'd say more but then I'd be sinking to your level. I hope you realize it's my story, and if I continue I'll be doing it for me, not you. Jerk, you're lucky I don't report you for harrassment! And for you, little miss 'Satan is ridiculous'? Uh, no, he's not. He's the ultimate villain. He's behind every major villain in the world and he's entirely focused on ruining lives. How is that ridiculous? Sounds like a damn good villain to me!
Anyway, I had a bout of 'I'll never be as good as a published author' depression, so I got some coffee and put on the Psychonauts soundtrack and set out to prove myself wrong. I WILL keep my New Year's Resolution and write every day, I will become a published author one day, or at the least I'll try my best. This chapter is my pride and joy because it was so hard to write, yet I got it done on time anyway. I feel proud in an odd, look at what I've accomplished sort of way... Even though it's much shorter than I think it should be. But no one can say I'm a bad author - three chapters in one day is EPIC and you all know it.
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Lucky had been told once by Sasha Nein that the insane's minds would warp drastically if they were near psitanium. Indeed, this seemed to be the case for Austin, whose mind was light, cheerful, brightly colored and rather pleasant (if odd) until she set foot inside the palace. Up until that point it had been a reflection of his light hearted, food loving personality. The moment her booted foot passed through the doorway, however, the world itself seemed to warp all around her, leaving a dark, unlivable place in its wake. Spiraling columns of slate soared upwards infinitely towards a ceiling she couldn't make out in the darkness. The floor was stain glass patterned, but purple and marroon and without any real pattern. A few faint red torches lit the room surreally well, as this was the mental world and the lights heeded no system of logic. The scent of dust was all around her, and she got the impression few people, if any, had been here before.
Each delicate footstep echoed in the darkness, every step connecting loudly with the stone like glass. Each movement generated a chilling shuffle in the darkness, just outside her line of vision. Unable to make out what it was, she readied a confusion grenade at her side, unsteadily glancing from side to side out of her almond shaped eyes. In a sudden flash of movement, she felt rather than saw something dart in and out of the circle of light the torches created. With one sweeping motion, she threw her grenade skillfully, hitting the creature dead on. Only it didn't even pause in the slightest at the blow, and instead began to approach her. Its steps made no sound, its lack of a head scaring her more than its immunity to her confusionism. The bloodied stump where its head should have been turned towards her, and it gurgled loudly. A lesser girl would have shrieked or ran, but with amazing calm and admirable peace, she began frantically lobbing grenades at it as fast as she could. It wasn't the most elegant or tactical solution. Still, it was all she could think of. She wasn't Rushi, she couldn't think of amazing solutions to every problem.
It took, according to Sasha Nein's studies, varying amount of confusion grenades to knock someone out. Five worked for children, eight to ten for adults, and sometimes Psychonauts (or Raz) had enough mental defenses to always stay conscious, if dazed. The gurgling, blood red creature took twelve before it stopped walking towards her, and twenty before it began to sway on its feet and act confused. As her arms ached and her mind begged her to stop, she continued hitting it, terrified to stop and too tired to continue. Her entire body ached, and finally her legs gave out beneath her after the seventy third attack. It was longer than she'd honestly thought she could last, but too little too late, as the creatured roared.
The deep pitched roaring became high pitched laughter in mere seconds as the four legged animal convulted, standing up on its hind legs as its very shape morphed into something vaguely human, with disturbingly long limbs and smooth orange skin. Its six diamond eyes glowed, not from power but from sheer evil, striking terror even into the fearless Psycadet. She shook just standing in his presence, feeling the raw evil radiate from him like a heater. His grin revealed golden, spiked teeth, the kind that would even make vampires shudder, and he stood at least eight feet tall. Yet his perfectly tailored white tux fit him like a glove, accenting every beautiful inch of unnaturally perfect muscle. He laughed again at her, more condescendingly this time, and Lucky's mind shut down as she realized who he was.
"Good evening, Luckinata. Although I do think you prefer to go by Lucky, if I'm not mistaken?" he tittered when her only response was to blankly stare straight through him like a ghost. "Ah, well, you never were the most stable child. But Shadow and I can discuss that later." He moved closer to her, then began to pace dramatically, hands clapsed behind his back. "I must say you did quite well for a mere child. Much better than your family, certainly. However, I am afraid I cannot tolerate people attempting 'rescue' missions of any sort, as laughable as they might be. So I am afraid that, as entertaining at it would be to let you continue on with your little heroic tale, I must end you now, Miss Lucky."
His hand clasped around the fabric of her hoodie, he lifted her high off the ground. Her head flopped like a rag dolls, her body limp and weak in his arms. Lucky had no will to resist. Shadow and Hikari were absent to what little was left of her consciousness. But deep within her, fighting her way to the surface like a caged animal, Rushi was screaming, "You aren't gonna take me, ya weakling!" and Lucky's eyes flickered, wobbling back and forth as Rushi essentially smacked the girl to the side, emerging with a gasp as Lucky's eyes turned from emerald, foresty green to the color of sunlight streaming through the leaves.
"LIKE HELL YOU ARE!" she screamed, and hit him with a confusion grenade so intense it could have killed a human. As it was, he barely dropped her, and she tackled him, clawing at him with psychic fists and causing his hair top errupt in flame as she knee'd him in the stomach again and again, screaming incoherently all the while. The flames of the torches errupted into pillars of fire and her eyes glowed so bright they could have outshone the sun as Rushi fought deperately to kill him. Her classmates, her sister, those men from that cult - she had killed them all and felt nothing for it, so she thought far less of killing Satan, the worst being ever to exist on this earth.
"Oh, you'd like a fight, Miss Lucky?" and his hands seized tightly around her throat as he laughed. "Well, fine. We'll see how well you do when you have no past experiences to draw strength from!"
And then he merely pressed two fingers to her forehead, and she was falling, falling, spiraling into a sea of darkness. The dark was not of him, of evil, but rather of sleep. Her mind gave in to the desire to rest as her arms and legs became deadweights and she collapsed on the floor, her vision spiralling. Her eyes flickered from dark Milla green to light yellow green, back and forth as the personalities fought to surive. Rushi and Lucky were being choked, killed, one of them was going to die. They fought for air, for consciousness, and then Lucky sank back into nothingness, asleep deep in their subconscious, and Rushi was left alone and cold on the floor.
Except it wasn't the floor of Austin's mind, but rather, the cold concrete surface of the ruins of the asylum. There was a boy standing over her, shaking her, attempting to get her to say something. Her mind felt heavy and thick as her hands reached out to grab his. He hauled her to her feet, only to find her lithe body couldn't support itself as she tipped over into his arms.
"Lucky? Lucky?!" he shook her. "Hey, say something. Anything!"
Her confused stare drove home her next words. "Who's Lucky?"
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AN: Yeah, I know it's short, but I really wanted to work in a good cliffhanger for the next chapter. And I promised myself I'd update daily, so it's not like I'm some kid writing teensy chapters/drabbles once a week or something. XD You'll see the next chapter tomorrow, or maybe even today if I can. I'm dedicated like that.