Ch 9
Something's still bothering him, all day there's been something at the back of his mind. The boy tried to get some sleep but he keeps getting a headache every hour. The feeling gets harder as the night goes on until he can't focus on anything else. An idea keeps echoing in his mind, "If anything goes wrong, go to the park at 3 am." Tired and unable to get any sleep, he decides to go for a walk at night, not wanting to worry Atrea he simply avoids her without saying anything. The headaches begin to calm down as he walks the street but the voice in his head is still there.
He finds his way to the park like the voice said. Street lamps scattered around brighten the area revealing the empty fields and playground. The boy continues meandering trying to tire himself out until he finds someone sitting at a bench. Hunched over with dark grey skin and a white pony tail, he recognizes it as the dark elf who saved him at the supermarket. She even has the same thick black visor covering her eyes.
The boy walks over to greet her, "Hey, weren't you the girl who saved me from those Lamia a couple days ago?"
The elf looks up at him and replies in a gloomy voice, "Maybe, I've been having problems remembering things recently."
"No, I'm sure of it. You have the same hair as the person I met that day. Unless, do you know any other elves working with the police?"
"If you say it was an elf it was probably me, but I don't know anything about it," she says as she looks back down.
The boy slowly sits down on the bench next to her, leaving a distance between them. "What are you doing here at this hour? I had trouble sleeping and just had this urge to go walking at night."
"I don't know. Night watch duty just gets so stressful sometimes and I need a break. There's a particularly dangerous demi-human loose and we can never seem to catch him."
"Yeah, I heard of him. He broke into my house and brainwashed me and my home stay, but it all got fixed in the end."
The elf sighs for a moment, "Hearing that just makes me want to blame myself, we can't seem catch him and I always miss him moving at night. I just keep hearing bad news about it and can't do anything, I just need to take a break here sometimes to clear my thoughts."
"Why here though? Is it important in anyway?"
"Not at all, but for some reason I feel better coming here after something goes wrong."
"Hold on, you hear that voice in your head too? 'Come to the park at 3 am'?"
The elf perks up and looks to the boy, his face reflected in her visor. She sounds more excited now, "You hear it too? I've been thinking that for weeks and have no idea why."
"The demi-human has mind control powers, my Culture Coordinator said something about it before flashing my eyes with something. He got into my house somehow and just sort of took over-"
She stands up to interrupt him, "That's it, that's why-"
Just as she's talking, another voice is heard, a very familiar one, "Hello, you two." The two look over to where the voice came from, Matthew is standing there only a couple yards away. The boy tries to get a good look at him but nothing seems to stick, he's there and it's definitely Matthew but he's impossible to describe. He seems human but the boy can't remember any details on what he looks like.
"Have you been coming here every night little elf? I'm sorry, I must have forgotten to put your mind back to how I found it. But I'm just here for the boy."
In a split moment the boy's whole world is distorted for a moment, his vision twists for a second before going back to normal. In that moment he sees Matthew for what he really is, his body is human shaped but very alien with a thin body and long fingers, his bald purple head in unusually large appearing like an octopus's body with tentacles squirming where his mouth would be. The disgusting sight is only there for a second but the boy remembers every detail, in that he remembers when he first saw 'Matthew' in this form.
"Matthew?" the boy asks, "No, who are you really?"
The thing replies to the boy, "My true name is Xanadu. I am of an ancient race that ruled this world millennium ago, the Illithids, what your kind now calls 'Mind Flayers'."
The dark elf pulls a knife from her boot charges him. She only makes it half way before-
"Ηχώxiàshǒu", a loud voice echoes through the air and the boy's headache acts up again. The sound is strange as if his ears didn't hear any of it but rather the boy heard it with the front of his mind. The elf fall over to the ground struggling, grasping her head in pain. The thing presses down on her with it's foot, "Stay out of this and I won't make you suffer any more. All I need is the boy."
The boy talks to the creature, "Why do you need me? You could just talk with the government and get assigned somewhere to live."
"We refuse to live among humans as equals. While you apes were still tattooing yourselves with blue dragons we were already enslaving the lesser races and building cities. After years of decline we have lived in secret away from your kind and other races hoping to one day regain our dominance over this world. However, my clan was discovered as your kind began reaching to other races, forcing us to leave our hiding place. For now, I only need a human to make travel easier, after that you can go back to your normal life until we can take control again."
The boy tries to run, but in as soon as he thinks it his muscles start to feel stiff. He's only able to slowly walk away as the creature quickly advances towards him. As Xanadu reaches for the boy's head, the world twists more showing his octopus head. Just as the creature is about to grab him, a large black figure slams into both of them. The boy is sent tumbling across the grass feeling pain all over his body, but he has full control again. As he looks around to see what's happening, he sees the dark elf is still laying on the ground where she first dropped and Xanadu has been knocked down by a large black spider, Atrea.
"You're not gonna sneak up on me this time." She says as she stares down the purple creature. Even as he tries to fight back Atrea is too quick for him. He tries to run but she forces him back to the ground and covers him in webbing.
"Atrea, you followed me?" the boy picks himself off the ground and walks over to her.
"Of course. You really think you can sneak out without me knowing? Though it took a while to catch up and find you. But I did find Frank on the way to help. Oh, that reminds me." Atrea grabs something from her clothes, it's another metal stick used to fix brainwashing like before. "Now don't blink this time." Atrea holds one of the boy's eyes open as she activates the flash. The boy is very annoyed but he doesn't complain since she did save him.
Xanadu struggles in his bindings but can't move. "Don't think you're done with me yet, arthropod."
Atrea looks down at him crossing her arms, "What could you possibly do? Even if you weren't stuck in my web you couldn't fight back and you don't have control over my brain."
Xanadu starts making mysterious sounds again, it's a lot more faint but the boy still hears it with his head. The dark elf starts standing up, it looks very unnatural as she sort of forces herself up using only her legs. The boy immediately understands what's happening.
"Atrea, look out!"
The elf charges towards her as the boy tries to get in her way. He slows her down a bit but is quickly pushed aside. The elf swipes with her knife as Atrea dodges and returns a swipe of her claws. Atrea soon realizes she's trying to cut the octopus thing loose and so tries to defend the position. She tries to make a grab with her front legs causing the elf to back up, she only manages to knock off her goggles. They're both very quick but Atrea is noticeably slower, the only reason the elf hasn't overwhelmed her is because she's certainly bigger and stronger causing the elf to keep a distance. Atrea reaches for the metal rod to try and blind her but it's swiftly kicked out of her hands into a bush.
Thinking quickly, the boy tries to grab the elf from behind. Just as he's about the surprise her, he hears a voice in his head. Xanadu is communicating to her and reacts to the boy's plan, the elf quickly turns around and slashes him with the knife, barely missing. He staggers back as the elf is now focusing on him, but she's quickly grabbed and restrained by Atrea. As Atrea holds her, the elf continues to struggle in her hold but she can't escape, until a ball of blue light floats over to them. The orb grabs everyone's attention before exploding in light. Everything goes white and it's impossible to see what's going on, the only thing that can be heard is the elf screaming in pain. As the light clears, she has gone limp in Atrea's grasp, allowing her to start tying her up.
"Good job, you two," Mr. Jones is now there, along with a woman with blond hair and fox ears, a kitsune. The man pulls out a handheld radio and talks into it, "All clear." In no time a Minotaur covered in armor stomps over and picks up the tied up Xanadu. Mr. Jones then turns his attention back to Atrea, "You put up a good fight against both of them. Although, I guess I should thank the one who led you here more."
"What? the boy says in confusion, "I didn't do anything. It was all Atrea. I did anything."
"True, but you did blink when you first got flashed, getting an idea what his strategy was. Also, Atrea only came because she liked you so much so I'll give you credit for that."
"Hey now," Atrea shouts back at him.
However, he ignores her, "Would you mind letting go of my agent, she should be fine now.
Atrea releases the limp dark elf to the ground. Mr. Jones and the blond woman pick her up by her arms and begin to carry her off. "I think we're done here. You two can go on home."
"So, that's it?" The boy asks.
Mr. Jones stops for a moment and turns around, "Well, not quite. Atrea did assault another demi-human, even if it was self defense that's against the law. And of course you left your home without supervision..." he trails off for a bit rubbing his chin, "I don't know, you did help us catch an wanted criminal so we could over look this for a while. See you in court or something." He then just continues walking off with his helper and the elf woman.
The boy is confused about the whole situation but as the excitement starts to die down he just starts to feel tired. While it does feel like a lot for nothing, he's just glad him and Atrea are alright. "Come on, lets go home."
"What?" she says back at him, "Can't we do something while we're out here?"
"Sorry, I need to get some sleep," the boy says as he yawns.
Atrea talks back very grumpy, "Really, I saved you and I don't get anything for it."
The boy shrugs, he's also upset they didn't get anything but since they're out this late, "Alright, I'll take you out to get pancakes. Just let me sleep in the booth."