I might have made Stan and Wendy come off too harsh last chapter.


Chapter 12

There was darkness within me. Darkness all around me. Darkness blinding me out. I could feel myself, I could feel my own heartbeats, but I couldn't see anything. I had no vision, no feeling except for the clothing on my back. Then all of a sudden, a surreal environment came into the folds of my mind, blotting out the darkness. I saw nothing but green grass around me, and in front of me was a crystal blue lake. Curious on what the surface of the lake would reflect back, I peered in. I saw myself - but a younger version of me. I was no more than about three years old. My hair, body, everything about me was the same, but I was just as small as a three year old.

A serene female voice called out to me. It was a voice I swear I could almost recognize from years ago. "Cole, honey, don't fall into the water."

I immediately turned around. There was a man, a woman, and a kid about my age on a picnic blanket underneath a tree. The picnic blanket was colored in a red and white checker pattern. All of the people shared my Caucasian skin tone. The woman had black hair that went down a little past the back of her neck. She had bright blue eyes, and she was no older than twenty-five. She was beautiful, with a well-toned body, lush cheeks, and a beautiful smile. The man is about the same age, and he too was well toned for an adult male. He had eyes as blue as the woman's and my own, short blond hair no longer than an inch or so, and a heartwarming smile. Around his neck was a yellow scarf. He reminded me alot like my bad. The kid was virtually a younger Isaac, with the same hairstyle, same clothing, same everything, except he was missing his yellow scarf, and he was also three years old. Then it hit me - it was like a memory from past. The woman with black hair was my mother.

"Mom..." was all that I could muster. I couldn't believe it. She's here. This can't be real. This has to be a dream. I sound three years old, although in reality I'm nearing ten now.

"Come here sweetie." She had her arms out. With instinct, I came running to her. She took me in her arms as I wrapped my own around her. "Aww, you're really cute."

"Mom!" I said. I held my mom tighter in my arms, almost squeezing her sides.

"It's ok, honey." I felt a kiss on my right cheek. "I'm always there for you."

But then I felt nothing. I wasn't in my mom's lap anymore. I fell to the ground. I looked up, and she wasn't there. I looked around. Only my dad and Isaac remained, staring at me. "Mom!" I looked around in panic. "Mom!"

"We'll all be together again soon Cole, stay strong," Dad smiled. He began to fade away into nothing as well. I ran to Dad to reach out and grab his hand, but my hands slipped through him.

"Dad! No!" I cried.

I looked to my brother Isaac. He waved at me and smiled. "We'll be together again as one happy family." He too faded away soon after.

"Isaac!" I tried to grab him too, but of to no avail as he faded into nothingness.

I looked at the lake again, which was now completely drained. Only rocks and dirt remained in its place. There was no explanation - logical or symbolic - I could find for this. I wasn't sure. I must be having some horrible nightmare. My entire family disappearing from my eyes. Then I felt a quake and I jumped - quite literally...


I don't know what hit the ground just now, because I was shell shocked by the shockwave that jumped me out of my sleeping bag. I must have landed on my back because the cold snow sent a freezing sting into my spine. My brain lurched in pain due to the manner of which I was awoken from my nightmare. As I opened my eyes, I saw the moon, but at a different position than when I first fell asleep. More notably, the green light was no longer in the sky, but at the bottom edge of my eyes I could see a green aura being given off. I raised my head to see a familiar figure that I might have seen before in a video game. The figure took the form of a sickly green gryphon-chimera fusion, with a demonic-shaped head and a demon-twisted expression, its mouth jagged and green light coming out of its eyes and throat, the same tone as the star I saw earlier this night. The figure was made of black obsidian stone with stone wings, a brown gryphon-like waist, and green aurora lines all over its body pulsating with green lights. It had two arms and four legs shaped like a bird's legs, and in the gryphon's right hand was a large staff also made of obsidian with a green power crystal on the tip.

"No way..." I couldn't believe my eyes. I knew exactly where this character came from. "Not you too..."

"Ugh..." I heard Stan get up from me to my left. "...what the fuck is going on..."

"...what is that?" Wendy's gasp was rather nervous.

The stone gryphon spoke with a rough voice. "I could hear you all caterwauling from clear out on the rim. And so I'm here to teach you all a lesson - of teamwork." He raised his staff, and swung it downwards, and a bright arcane orb was launched - towards me! I tried to get up and run, but the orb was too quick, and it exploded on my face. I flipped backwards and grabbed my face, the magic blast burning and stinging me.

I grabbed my seared face in pain "Ow! What the fuck!"

"Don't give it a thought," the gryphon simply mocked.

"Get him!" I heard Wendy yell.

I opened my eyes. Stan, Wendy and Isaac drew out their weapons and tried to charge the gryphon, but it simply flew up. "I seems I've overestimated your intelligence." The gryphon let out another haughty laugh again. "You really think you can hit a flying target with swords and axes?"

A frostbolt and an ice lance came into contact with the obsidian gryphon's face. Both projectiles exploded onto his face. The gryphon turn his glare to my left - onto Ray. As I stood up, the gryphon spoke again. "Damn mages. Here, I'll give you a little pause." Ray was suddenly lifted up from the ground, and moments later, he disappeared and was encased in a bright blue bubble of light. "Your sanity, eclipsed."

"Ray!" I yelled. I tried to reach out for him, unfortunately, I just realized that he was banished from the physical plane.

I tried to heal my face again, but I was smacked by another magic blast, this time from my right side. I rolled over again but stood up quickly. "Morons, I thought the number one rule of any fight is to protect your healer."

I heard roars from Stan, Wendy, and Isaac, but it didn't sound like their weapons connected with any object. Those idiots really think they can swing their sword at a flying target? Suddenly, I heard a sound of a door closing, and Ray came back from the bubble. He had his mouth open and his eyes were unfocused. "Cole?"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I feel...stupider."

I cringed. I suddenly remembered what the gryphon was capable of - he could literally steal people's intelligence temporarily and turn it against them. Then when I peered to my right, and that's when I saw Stan, Wendy, and Isaac up next close to me with their weapons out, as if acting like my bodyguards. "Well, you can't kill Cole now!" Stan shouted. "He's with us!"

I let out a small groan. Oh no, my friends don't realize the gryphon's power. "Guys, we need to spread out. Now!"

But it was likely too late, as the gryphon began to rise and the air and lift his staff to the sky. "I'll snuff out your sanity."

All of a sudden, I was consumed by an arcane blast that ripped apart the snow around us. A burning rush of winds seeped into my mind, tearing my brain apart. "Ah!" All five of us screamed. I grabbed my head and I felt like it was completely fried out. It's like the feeling whenever Mr. Garrison gives us a quiz about pop culture.

"Ah what the fuck?" Stan cried. "Fuck! My head hurts so much!"

"What is this guy?" Wendy added.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the gryphon in front of us down on the ground again. "Hahahaha. I go by many names. Obsidian Destroyer, Outworld Destroyer, Outworld Demolisher, Outworld Devourer, and, funnily enough, even Outhouse Decorator." He let out another harsh chuckle. "But you can all call me 'Harbinger'. Like the Harbinger of the End Times."

"Are you gonna kill us?" Isaac asked. "Please don't kill me!"

"No," the gryphon replied.

"Then why attack us?" Wendy asked. "You nearly fried my brain out!"

"It was a test of friendship, and you failed." The gryphon took flight again. "I thought Dovahkiin here was capable of bringing the power of friendship and the Voice to restore the stick. But from I observed of you all a few hours ago I guess he's incapable of doing so." The gryphon faced Ray. "But unfortunately, I can't take over your job. It's not my fate."

"What do you even know about friendship?" Stan said. "What are you anyways?"

"The exercise was to see how long you can last against me." Harbinger twirled his staff around while his wings beat with the rhythms of eternity. "You kids didin't even last one minute. You don't work like a team, you all move as if you're disconnected from each other. How are you going to take down Terrorblade should he reach his full power?"

I gasped. "You know about the Stick?"

"Of course I know about the Stick of Truth!" Harbinger curtly replied. "'He who controls the Stick controls the universe.' It's not some stupid fairy tale. And how would I know anything about friendship? Are you guys familiar with the game of Dota 2?"

That came back to me. Of course he too was from Dota 2, how could I be so stupid? When no one else said anything, I stepped forward. "I play Dota 2 sometimes."

"Then you are familiar with team-based gaming, yes?" Harbinger asked. "The objective to kill the enemy ancient?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Good, that will save us some time." Harbinger landed on the ground, and snow erupted from his landing point as his landing shook the ground again. "Did you know that the game was actually based on events that happened in the universe decades, if not centuries, ago?"

"Wait, you're telling me that Valve the company coincidentally ended up creating a game based on real events?" I could hear Ray walk back and forth.

"Pretty big coincidence there, huh Dovahkiin?" Harbinger cleared his throat. "I aligned myself with four other people - a pyromancer, a paladin, a magnetic warrior, and a dark ghost with a blade. Our job was to bring down Terrorblade and his allies." Harbinger closed his eyes. "We didn't get along very well. We made many mistakes - myself included. We blamed each other when things when awry. We refused to listen to each other, we thought our own way was the right way. We called each other insults and names - idiot, noob, loser, faggot. That was the reason Terrorblade is allowed to be around now." Harbinger covered his face. "We're all different. But everyone needs friends to get places. Did you know that humans are naturally in need of love and positive social experiences?"

Only Isaac said "no." The rest of us kept silent.

"When we failed our jobs, we never saw each other again. We weren't on speaking terms. And I say this because I don't want to see you all destroy yourselves like how my ex-friends did. I'm no fluffy person, but yes, you all are different. You have different experiences with different ideals and, as such, naturally you will clash every so often." I saw Wendy raise her hand to try to say something, but Harbinger stuck out his hand as if to halt her. "Hush now, you're no holy grail. But those same differences can be used to cover your own weaknesses, thus making you stronger." Harbinger let out another yawn. "You're young kids - you're carefree, you just want to play games and have fun and not be burdened with having to take back a sacred artifact, but realize this - good friends who work together can destroy any problem. I know it sounds cheesy, but...it's something I should have told my allies a long time ago."

That felt literally like every single solo game I've played of Dota 2, where someone freaks out and rages whenever things don't go our way. Or every WoW dungeon run where someone makes a mistake and the rage begins. I was amazed how someone could connect video games to actual friendship. But alas, it works, and I should give credit to Harbinger for doing so. I guess he really is intelligent after all.

"There's something else I want to say," Harbinger continued. "They say Dovahkiin's real power comes from his collective friendships. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean he should make as many friends as possible on Facebook. Think about it." Maybe Harbinger really means that you just need a few very good friends to tackle any problem. "I predict that if Terrorblade does not die by the end of this Friday, he'll become an unstoppable force." Makes sense, given how fast Terrorblade is. "Oh and one more thing: the American government is going to be hunting for your asses."

"Why?" Stan asked.

"This disaster has happened before - concerning the same Dovahkiin here." Harbinger pointed at Ray. "They want to cover things up. Word on the street is that the spaceship crash is being disguised as a new Taco Bell."

"I don't remember anything." Ray just shook his head. "My parents keep insisting nothing happened."

"You'll remember soon enough." Harbinger let out another yawn. "You know where to go right?"

"North of North Park to the Sol Lighthouse?" Wendy replied.

"I'm surprised you already knew," Harbinger replied, "I'm assuming you all read the book. Where is it?"

"I have it." Stan took the book out from his belt and showed it to him.

"Keep it," Harbinger replied. "Wait, where did you find it?"

"I found it in my school library," I replied.

Harbinger only held a confused look on his face. "Huh. I wrote that thing back in 1930 should the Stick ever show up. I didn't think it would show up in the elementary school of a humble mountain town in midwest America."

Stan chuckled under his breath. "South Park isn't that humble."

"I'll see you all at the Sol Lighthouse, but it's time for me to get going. I have to help purge the Nazi Zombie outbreak as well." Harbinger groaned. "Ugh, this isn't the first time this happened either. Those damn fucking visitors can't contain their bacteria nor do they know how to properly pilot a spaceship." With that, Harbinger flew away towards the direction of South Park.

"I wonder if I should have told Harbinger I killed the pilots on the spaceship..." Ray rubbed his chin.

"You caused the crash?" Isaac took Ray's shoulders. "What's wrong with you?"

"They fucking probed me! I had to find a way out!" Ray turned to Stan and suddenly a smirk crept up his face. "By the way, Stan, your dad and Craig Tucker also got probed."

"What?" Stan's eyes enlarged themselves. He was probably in shock and awe when he heard that.

I checked my phone. It read 5:20 am. "Huh. 5:20. Guess we're not going back to sleep at this rate. Should we get going now?"

"What's wrong, Wendy?" Stan asked.

I turned to face Wendy, and she only stared at her own feet. "It's about what Harbinger said about friendship..." She gave out a long sigh. "I've said some mean things to you all last night. I was being a bitch, and the worst part was that I meant it all too, well...I just want to apologize for giving you all trouble."

"I shouldn't have called you all douchebags," Isaac apologized.

"Wendy," Stan said. "I guess we have issues trusting each other. I mean that's what couples are supposed to do, right? Trust each other?" He sighed and put his hands out. "I'm a shit boyfriend. I haven't put forth effort, and I've been treating you like some sort of prize or something, or well, I don't know how to explain it...I really don't."

Wendy nodded. "It's alright, Stan, I gave you a hard time as well, and well there is one way to make it all up. For each other, of course."

"How?" Stan asked.

Wendy wasted zero time leaning over to Stan to kiss him in the lips. I guess she didn't want to give Stan time to throw up on her, haha. I peered to Ray who had covered his eyes. "Ew!" I chuckled underneath my breath. Ray will understand love later, if not now. I mean, besides, it's not like every fourth grader in the world has a boyfriend or girlfriend.

When Wendy and Stan separated, she immediately juked to Stan's right to avoid being hit by the barrage of vomit sprays that came forth from Stan. The vomit hit Isaac's legs, unfortunately. "Ew!" Isaac complained.

As Ray wasted no time summoning up a water elemental to have it spray the vomit off of Isaac, Wendy fluttered her eyes and smirked. "Sorry. Stan just gets really nervous and queasy around me. All boys get nervous around their girlfriends, trust me."

I just stood there, not sure what to make of it. I really don't. From an outsider's point of view, someone would think that Wendy smelled really bad. But she doesn't, in fact she often wears perfume on her. I could still faintly smell it on her, despite our predicament. I kinda wanted to get back on track to be honest. "So what do we do about North Park? How do we get to Sovngarde before the end of Friday? We need a car."

"Well there is a way to get a car..." Stan shrugged. "Um...I hope you're all comfortable with breaking huge laws, because you're not gonna like this..."

Wendy rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Stan, it can't be that bad..."


I'm only introducing one more Dota character, and none of them are going to show up for a while. From here, the journey to North Park and north of that begins. As for laws being broken, I'll leave it up to the reader's imagination.

Writing this chapter...felt weird. If anything, I wasn't exactly comfortable introducing another Dota character because I was afraid of pushing this story into the threshold of becoming a crossover, even though I only placed two out of a hundred characters into the South Park universe. Then again, Matt and Trey did place characters from other media into South Park (such as Mickey Mouse for example), so I guess that could slide(?).

That being said, if you played Dota, you should immediately understand OD's message.