Chapter 5. Questions.
Jack panted as he got out of the lower layer and in the courtyard, shifting in where no one was looking. "We….huff… made it."
"And with a minute and thirty seconds to spare." Damian noted.
Jack wobbled to the doors. He got about a yard away before tripping and falling over a yellow deer. The deer was Autumn. He wore his signature brown V-neck sweater and slacks. A necklace had fallen off him when he tumbled.
"Oh I'm so sorry, Autumn!" Jack said, sitting up and getting off the deer.
"It's ok, I'm not...hurt…" as soon as Autumn looked towards Jack, he gave him a quizzical look.
"Uh, something wrong?"
"N-no, no, everything's...alright. Can...you help me up?"
"Sure." Jack stood up and reached out his right hand for him.
Autumn took it and his eyes widened when Jack picked him up. "There."
"Thanks…" he said, looking at Jack's arm, still holding his hand.
"Um...you can let go now."
"Hm? Oh sorry." He chuckled, letting go.
"It's fine, you sure you're ok?" The bell rang, signaling lunch ending.
"I'm alright." He smiled.
"Oh, your necklace!" Jack said, seeing it on the ground. He reached to grab it but Autumn quickly swiped it.
"Got it! We should get to class."
Jack raised a brow. "Uh, ok? See you around I guess?"
"Sure thing."
Jack walked inside feeling Autumn stare at him. "That was weird." He expected a response from Damian and looked at his right arm when he didn't get one. "Damian?"
Damian got in Jack's ear. "Sorry, was thinking about that necklace. It looked kinda...familiar."
"How so?"
"No idea…"
Jack got in the classroom and to his seat. "Let's talk about it later. We still got a doll to get to tonight." Jack told Damian.
"Got it. Afterwards you should head home and eat some of the souls you got saved up. Taking on these dolls is probably working up an appetite."
"Well, I could go for a soul, not gonna lie."
"Thought so."
The teacher walked in and began class.
The final bell rang and Jack walked out the classroom with radar in his left hand and phone in his right hand.
"The next doll that's closest looks to be the otter. Question is; what do we do when we see it?" Jack asked Damian, pretending to be talking on the phone.
"Maybe we can pull the core out before it activates kill mode." Damian suggested.
"How do we do that?"
"Look around it, calmly, for where its chest plate opens up, and yank it off, then nab the core."
"What's stopping it fro-"
"Jack!" Zill called out from behind.
"Hm?" Jack turned around and saw Zill running up to him. "Oh, it's Zill!"
"And a falling locker." Damian said.
"Huh?" Damain moved to Jackson's left and placed his backhand against the front of a falling locker, stopping it. "Oh! Thanks Damian!"
"Mhm." Damian pushed it back up against the wall.
Zill got up to Jack. "You ok?" He asked the jackal.
"I'm fine. Not a scratch as you can see." Jack reassured him.
"Man, you've really been conquering your ba-" Zill stopped himself, "nope nope nope!" He shook his head.
"Zill?"
"Last time anyone said anything about you dominating your luck, you got into an accident."
"True, but I doubt that's gonna happen again."
"I'm not tempting fate. Hey, how bout we head over the arcade for tonight, you and me."
"I'd love to, but...I can't. I, uh.." Jack tried to think up an excuse.
"Plans with me!" Damian whispered.
"Plans with Damian!"
Zill's smile faltered upon hearing that. "Oh."
"I'm sorry. I'd let you come too but it's last minute and Damian's really shy."
"Hey!" Damian loudly whispered.
"It's fine. We still got tomorrow." Zill said.
"Definitely!" He turned to leave. "See you then!" He said, waving bye to Zill.
Zill waved back and saw Jack disappear into the crowd, his smile completely fell and was replaced with a look of somber. He didnt realise someone else was looking in on Jack from behind him, focusing his gaze on the jackal.
"Ok, we're coming up on the otter doll." Jack said, jumping from building to building to the location of the hell machine.
"Remember the plan." Damian told him
"Right. Search it to find where its chest plate opens, take it to the lower layer, yank it off, pull out its core."
"You got it!"
"Why do I feel like this is gonna go horribly wrong?"
"Relax, it'll be fine."
They landed near the front of a garage that was connected to a house. On the porch they saw the silhouettes of a mother and father otter talking to each other. They both looked very concerned.
"Wonder if they're ok." Jack asked.
"Wanna hear what they're talking about?" Damian asked.
"Damian, I can't just butt into their conversation."
"Who Said you had too, one sec." Damian pulled Jack up to the otter parents. He circled his hand around them, making a red circle. He pressed the center of it and pulled back, having the circle surround him and Jack as it went behind them and enclosed, disappearing.
"What did you-?"
"Maybe we should take him back to the hospital." The voice of the mother otter said.
"What!?"
"For what? They already said he was fine." The father said.
"How are we able to hear them?"
"Hunny, he's not fine. He only comes inside to sleep, he barely eats, he's in the garage for most of the day tinkering with nothing, and he barely talks to us." The mother said.
"I made a sound tether." Damian told Jack.
"A sound tether?" Jack said.
The father sighed. "I know how you feel hun, but what's taking him back to the hospital gonna do?"
"I don't know, I just want our son back!" The mother yelled, nearly tearing up.
"Carol…" the father gave her a hug. "I want the same… I just wish I knew what we could do."
Jack looked sadly at them before his expression became one of determination. "Damian, let's get the son back!" He changed to his demonic form.
"Calm down there, if you go in like that you might startle it." Damian told him.
"Oh," he changed back and nervously chuckled, "oops."
"Cmon."
The two walked to the garage and got in to see an otter screwing in an arm on a toy bot. It wore a worker overall and was only half Jack's height.
"Alright. Let's get out of the layer and search the body." Damian said, pulling them out of the layer.
"Ok." Jack slowly approached the Doll. "Excuse me." He said to it and began feeling up its body.
The doll turned to look at Jack while it was being felt.
Meeting its gaze made Jack feel awkward. "This feels….weird to do." He said, making a nervous smile.
"Shut up and keep looking." Damian told Jack, feeling all over the doll's body for where the plate opening could be. "Hey! I found it."
"Great! Let's pull it in and-"
"Unauthorized demon attempting entry." The otter doll said, emitting a red wave to pull them all into the lower layer.
"Crap." Damian said.
"Entering kill mode." The otter stood up. Its body segmented as it extended to be a foot taller than jack. Its eyes turned crimson red and its mouth opened up for a metal jaw to come out of it. Its arms split apart and a long doubled edged blade came out of each one.
Jack took a few steps back. "Relax, he said, it'll be fine, he said!" He said, glaring at Damian.
"How was supposed to know this would happen?" Damian defended, transforming into a demon arm.
"I knew this was gonna go wrong!" Jack said, going demon.
The hell machine stretched forward, lunging its jaws at Jack. Jack jumped to the side and it swerved to him.
Jack sent a right uppercut to it. It swiveled around and darted to Jack, who ducked to avoid its jaws, nearly getting his ears cut by its blade. He ducked away from it. It tried to wrap around him but he jumped up to avoid its snake-like grasp. He grabbed his red hairs and threw them at the doll.
The doll went up and spun to deflect his red hairs.
"Oh man!" Jack cried. Damain punched back to pull them out of the way, the head of the doll crashing into the roof. "Thanks Damian!" He rolled onto his feet.
"No problem! Though we're gonna need to work on your maneuverability in the air."
The doll brought its head down, twisted back as it retracted itself, and launched forward in a spiral. Jack hoped to the side to avoid it and slammed his demon arm down onit's back, making arch it's back as he punched it to the ground. It used the momentum to wrap around Jack. He struggled in its grasp and it brought its top behind him, ready to scissor his head off.
"Hrrrrg," Jack lit up both his arms and pushed, "RAH!" He pushed out of its snake like grasp, rolling forward to avoid its last minute slice. He shot his blue hairs forward, using his left hand to guide them, and wrapped it around its head, yanking it to him. He sent a right punch straight to its face and it responded by stretching out its swords to pierce his right fist.
"AH!" Damian ducked down, hanging Jack down with him, avoiding the otter bots stab. "Too close!" The top came back and Jack swung at it again, only for Damian to pull away because he was gonna be met with a swing of its blade. "AHH!" Damian swerved to Jack. "Watch where you swing me!"
Jack smirked a tad bit evilly, more so due to his demon form, and ran up to the otter. It swung its blade down at him and he responded by sending a right uppercut.
"WOAH!" Daimian swiveled to the side, unbalancing the robot, and Jack pulled him back and punched him in its face. "Hey! What's the b-" Damian was cut off when Jack sent a backhand at it, about to meet its edge. "WAH!" Damian shoved the opposite way to dodge before Jack re-sent the backhand to the side of its face. It chomped at them and Jack threw a right punch in response. "JAWS!" Damian yanked back, pulling jack back as well. Jack used the momentum to pull his right arm far back before slamming his fist into its forehead, knocking its top back while its legs stumbled backwards a bit.
As it stood back up, Jack wrapped his blue hairs around its arms, tightly constraining it. It bit at Jack promoting the mutated demon to grab its closed jaws after the third chomp and rip it off. Jack lit up both hands and clapped them around its head, blowing fire onto it. He squeezed down as the head melted and squished. Jack gritted his teeth as he pushed harder before eventually crushing the head like a giant can. It fell to its knees and fell backwards on its back.
Jack took a deep breath, unwrapping his hairs from the robot, and reverted back to normal. "Phew. Think I'm getting better at this, what do you think?...Damian?" He looked at his silent right arm quizzically. "You o-Hurg!" Jack's neck was choked on by Damian.
"I nearly got sliced and bit you prick!" Damian growled.
"It...was...a strategy!" Jack managed to say.
"Why didn't you tell me that then!?"
"You...never…..asked?" That just tightened Damians grip. "I-i-im sorry!"
"Grr." Damian let go. "You better be glad I'm your arm and not some random demon. Let's get that core."
Jack gasped for air, gulping oxygen down. "Yeah, lets." Jack walked up to the machine and grabbed its chest, yanking off the plate. He reached I'm and removed its core. "Alright, that's two cores. Let's take them home and crush the cores." Jack turned to the disabled doll. "I know it's kinda late asking this, but what should we do about the dolls...remains."
"Nothing. When the dip gets low they'll shift back to hell."
"Really?"
"Mhm. The dormant demon energy in them will send them through the layer to hell real, when the dip gets low enough. It's when that energy is active that they keep from involuntarily going to hell. So, uh, don't get knocked out."
"Yeah, don't want that." He placed the core in his pocket, making a mental note that the one for the wolf was in his backpack. He walked out of the garage and walked past the silhouettes of the mother and father otter who went wide eyed when they didn't see their son. They called out for him and looked around, panicking. Jack looked at them solemnly. "We'll get your sun back, I promise. Let's go Damian!" Jack ran off and headed to the house where the animals were tied up.
Across the street, someone walked up to in front of the house, looking at the panicking otters, before sitting down.
Jack went into the House of Stolen Souls, having not so pleasant memories of the place. "Damian, is the spider's body gonna be there?"
"Dead demons don't have any energy, maybe some residual energy like from their killer, but otherwise none is there so they just rot where they die. They do rot quicker in the layer."
"I see, that's good to know." Jack hopped down the hole and into the basement.
"What the-!?"
"What?"
"Look!" Damian pointed to a spot with some ashes on it.
"What?" Jack asked, confused.
"The spider's corpse is gone!"
"Isn't that what's supposed to happen? You said they rot quickly."
"Not that quickly! There should at least be most of its remains left, only parts of the skin and flesh should've been rotted away!"
"Really?...wait," what Damian said started to sink in, "if that's the case then...where'd its body go?"
"I don't know!"
"Could it have been revived somehow!?"
"You ate its soul, so no!"
"Wait, the mammals!" Jack turned to the wall to see if the animals were still there. To his relief, all three of them were still on the wall. "Phew. Still there."
"Before you grab them, look around. Someone had to have taken its corpse, so I'm gonna feel around for residual energy, you look to see if anything was possibly left behind."
Jack began to wander around the basement, walking over the small spider's corpses that he killed when first coming there. He looked around and saw nothing but webs, a large net of it on the back. "This must be that mother spider's web." He said, searching around it for anything. He saw a ripped open web pouch. "What's this?" He examined the pouch and saw it was empty. "Think this is where the radar was?"
"The radar was on her, so that wouldn't make sense. Plus this radar isn't as long as this pouch is."
"Then what was in it?" He looked around the back, seeing if anything else would be webbed up anywhere. "Hm?" Jack saw a small round object with a red light on it in the corner. "What is-"
"Oh shit!" Damian quickly aimed at the device and blew a stream of fire at it.
"Damian, what are you doing!?"
Damian stopped his flames and the object fell, looking like a melted ball. "That was a camera!"
"It was? Well why'd you destroy it, we coulda looked at the video."
"Jack that camera was recently placed, and it's the kind that sends a direct video feed to a tablet."
"Wait, that means-"
"We were being watched."
"By who!? And why?"
"I don't know. I just hope no one's watching at this time."
"Yeah...think they're the ones that took the corpse?"
"Most likely, but they hid their energy, so I can sense them or find any traces."
"Dang...well no sense worrying about it now, let's return the wolf and otter back."
"Right."
Jack set the wolf on his chair in the backyard. "Alright let's pull him into the mortal realm." Damian said. She shifted them to the mortal realm before taking him and Jack back to the lower layer. "Break the core."
Jack reached into his backpack and pulled out the crystal core. He crushed it and the wolf startled awake, looking around frantically. "Ok, now let's return a son to his parents."
Jack placed the otter on the living room couch while his parents were in the dining room, the father trying to keep the mother calm. He made sure he was out of sight when Damian shifted them out of the layer to have the otter come with them, before shifting back. He broke the core and he startledly woke up.
The parents heard this and rushed to their boy, seeing him, crushing him in a hug with tears of joy.
Jack smiled at them. "I'm glad we helped."
"Maybe we can reveal we did it and get a reward?" Damian suggested.
"Damian!"
"I'm joking, you're too nice to do that anyway." He laughed.
Jack rolled his eyes and left the house. "Let's head home. I'm kinda hungry so some souls sound...good?" Jack trailed off when he saw Autumn, wearing red glasses, reading a newspaper on a bench across the house. "The heck?"
"What's he doing here?"
"I don't know. I don't think he lives around here...Maybe it's just a coincidence."
"Maybe...I'm not so sure."
"Well what other reason could there be? It's not like he followed us."
"I know but...something feels off about him ever since our earlier encounter."
"I think you're overthinking things."
Damian Sighed. "You could be right. Let's head home."
Jack headed the direction of home. While he was walking down the streets he didn't notice Autumn taking a glance down his way.
Jack was leaping his way to his house. "Hey, after you eat some, let's work on your strength control." Damian said.
"How?" Jack asked.
"Were gonna go to the Lowry layer and- Hey, is that Spam?"
"Hm?" Jack stopped his jumping and looked down from the building he was on to see Spam in a white shirt and Jeans carrying a bouquet of flowers and a red box. "What's he doing?"
"He's got flowers and what I assume to be a box of chocolates, soooo."
"It must be for a date!...with Vanexa...I'm never gonna get used to that."
"Is it really such an odd couple?"
"A little. I always thought Vanexa found Spam the most annoying out of all of us. She still sees him as a friend though."
"Guess the feelings evolved from annoy to endear."
"But when?"
"Let's ask later...or we could spy on them."
"No Damian, we won't do either of those. It's their private life so we have no business to pry." Jack groaned in annoyance.
"Aww."
"Let's continue home."
Jack walked in his home. He went for his soul bag and grabbed a soul, licking his lips. "Bottoms up!" He dropped the soul into his mouth before chewing and swallowing. "Yum."
"So, like, what do souls taste like?" Damian asked.
"Uh, that's kinda hard to describe. Their flavor is like...a mixture of sorts."
"A mixture of?"
"Like...uhhh…sweet yet sour, yet tangy, it's really hard to describe."
"Yet they taste good?"
"Really good." Jack replied, munching on another soul. "Mmm!"
"Huh. Weird."
Jack devoured a third soul, tempted to reach for another.
"Hey hey! Three souls is enough!"
"I know, I know." Jack tied up the back and put it away.
"Alright," Damian pulled them into the lower layer, "let's get practicing. Outside please."
Jack walked outside. "What are we gonna do?"
"Since the dip's pretty low here, you're gonna punch your outside wall till you can punch it without breaking it."
"I see, since the dips low I won't have to worry about anything breaking."
"You're learning quick." Damian smiled.
"Alright," Jack walked to his outer wall, "let's start." He pulled his right arm back and punched at the wall before Damian stopped him.
"Other arm."
"Oh." Jack pulled back his left arm and punched the wall, destroying it.
"Again." The wall repaired itself.
"Ok!" He did it again and tried to hold back, still getting the same result. "Darn!"
"Pull back before it connects."
"I'll try!" He tried pulling back last minute but got the same results. "One more time!" He did it again and this time only cracked the walls before it broke apart. "Hey!"
"We're getting somewhere just keep that…."
"Damian?"
"Change." Damian turned to a demonic arm.
"What?"
"Someone's coming! Change!"
"What!?" Jack transformed. "Where are they!?"
"They're coming from in front!"
"In front!? Like from my house!?" Jack heard crashing.
"Yes, now move!"
Jack jumped out the way as something crashed through his wall and nearly smelled into him. "Who's there!?"
The dust settled and a black being stood there. It was a foot taller than Jack, had smooth shiny skin, a slender body, red gaping eyes, a single horn, and sharp claws. It looked to Jack. "Target found. Eliminating." It ran up to Jack and tried to close its claw hands around him.
Jack grabbed its hands and pushed back, locking into a power struggle with it.
"Well then," someone looking in from a distance said, "this has turned into quite the development. I wonder how this'll play out."
End
Next chapter: Questions part two.