Part 7: Legion
Oh but he's back…He's the man behind the mask…
And he's after your soul…
Frantically trying to get Platinum Blonde's blood off his helmet, but only succeeding in smearing it more, Nightwalker began to slowly back up, Uberjason following him with his eyes, eyes that looked furious no matter what Jason was doing.
Then he started coming after him.
"…What do we do?" Jinx whimpered.
And then a loud zapping boom suddenly sounded behind the pair, and Nightwalker and Jinx turned around, attracted by the noise.
Zippy was gone. She'd run off through the open door. Whether she was afraid or the poor girl had finally snapped from all the death (and Nightwalker would bet money on the latter), she'd left Nightwalker and Jinx to the wolves. Hell, wolves would be preferable to what was heading for the two of them, walking at a steady, measured pace, as if he had all the time in the world.
By instinct, even as he turned back to face the souped-up slasher, Nightwalker was clawing for his belt. He had one, maybe two packs of normal ammo left, and one pack of explosive ammo (he knew them by touch). The choice was obvious, as Nightwalker grabbed and slammed in the explosive ammo, skipping backwards several steps.
"GET DOWN!" He yelled. Jinx ducked, and Nightwalker fired.
The orbs slammed into Uberjason and exploded, immensely powerful blasts that had knocked back the Nemesis.
Uberjason didn't even budge.
"…Oh man." Nightwalker said, as the smoke cleared. Uberjason looked down on the scorch marks that the explosions had made, and then looked up, his head tilting ever so slightly. Please.
The only thing the last ammo pack had done was stopping Jason's walk. He resumed it swiftly.
"I think Zippy had the right idea: RUN!" Jinx screamed, and ran for the door. Nightwalker didn't argue: he turned tail and fled with Jinx.
If you see him coming, get away if you can.
Just keep on running, run as fast as you can.
He's a dangerous, dangerous man…
The door slammed shut in Jinx's face.
"WHAT! NO! NO!" Jinx screamed, pounding on the door. "Why us? WHY US?"
"Move!" Nightwalker said, pushing her aside and aiming at the keypad as he snapped in one of his last ammo packs. He fired, punching a hole through it.
The door remained closed.
"Right. Why not?" Nightwalker said, as he and Jinx turned back around to face the approaching Uberjason.
"Why us?" Jinx whimpered. "Why do they keep coming after us, one after the other? Why do they want us? It's not like we did them any wrong! We weren't in the first movie!"
"………….Uh, yeah." Nightwalker said. "Say Jinx, you any good at hacking?"
"Um…well…Gizmo gave a lesson once. But I kinda snoozed through it…"
"That'll have to do." Nightwalker said, as he aimed and blew the keypad panel clear off. "You hack, I'll try and avoid the slashing. At the very least, maybe you can get around me and go out the way he came."
Jinx was about to reply, but Nightwalker didn't give her the chance, as he ran up to the approaching Uberjason.
Uberjason didn't seem much impressed, as he raised his machete, a sleek futuristic one, still slick with Platinum Blonde's blood, and he slashed. Nightwalker ducked under it, the wide roundhouse blow slicing off the tips of his shoulder tendrils/cape, as his knife snapped out and Nightwalker stabbed for the more vulnerable looking area of Jason's chest.
The knife broke off anyway.
Uberjason slashed back the same way, as Nightwalker ducked again, dodged to the side, and then tried kicking him in the chest. It hurt the teen a lot more then it hurt the slasher: it felt like he was kicking a steel wall.
"Come on…these things weren't supposed to be super-complex…!" Jinx cursed as she fiddled with the wires inside the keypad.
Nightwalker dodged a downward machete slash and kicked Uberjason across the face. His neck didn't even move, and then Nightwalker suddenly found Uberjason's free hand seizing his costume and lifting him up, slamming him down onto the ground with bone shuddering force. As stars danced in Nightwalker's eyes, Uberjason lifted his machete…
Nightwalker lifted his arm as his computer lock-on screen selected the most likely vulnerable area and fired, shooting an orb right into Jason's eye.
It stopped him, at least. As Nightwalker scrambled back, Jason reached up and popped the orb out. His eye was unharmed: the marble had just gotten stuck in his mask. Uberjason dropped it and headed after Nightwalker as he got up and fled back to Jinx.
"I think I got it…I got it!" Jinx said.
Sparks suddenly shot from the opened keypad as Jinx received a powerful shock, knocking her to the ground with a cry. The door did not open, but at least another door didn't close over it.
"Just great." Nightwalker said, as he fired the last of his orbs into Uberjason. The king of slashers didn't even bother to stop, as he reached behind himself.
"Help! HELP! SOMEONE, ANYONE!" Jinx said, getting up and pounding on the door.
"MOVE!" Nightwalker yelled, shoving Jinx out of the way.
The spiked metal rod impaled in the door where Jinx has just been…and where Nightwalker's arm was. Nightwalker's only luck was it didn't go through his arm: it just glanced it. It still sliced through his armored outfit like butter and cut a deep wound on his inner forearm. Nightwalker growl/yelled, clutching his limb as rivets of blood began to run down it.
"Wha…what the hell! He wasn't the type to carry backup weapons!" Jinx said, as Uberjason yanked on the chain and pulled the spiked rod back to his hand.
"I guess the powers that be thought it would be boring if he just had a machete." Nightwalker replied, as Uberjason put his throwing spear back on his back, picked his machete off the ground, and headed for the two again.
"You all right?" Jinx said.
"I'm out of ammo and facing an invincible killer. The only thing right about this is that I WILL die with all my wounds on my front."
"…….." Jinx said.
"Yeah." Nightwalker said.
And the two charged at Uberjason, who met them with furious slashes, slashes the two dodged as they hammered punches and kicks into the unmoving, unfeeling monster. Even Jinx's hexes, one of which exploded a nearby half-table and showered Jason with flaming splinters, didn't affect him. And since Nightwalker was only using one arm, he was pretty much lame. And he was getting a terrible headache, a loud pounding in his head.
"AHHHAHHHH!" Jinx yelled, as she flipped over a machete slice and kicked Jason in the mask.
Jason just grabbed her foot.
"AHHHHHHH!" Jinx screamed as Uberjason swirled Jinx around and then hurled her into Nightwalker. He cocked his head, as if he regretted the move: in actuality he was sad there hadn't been a tree nearby. That kill always went over big.
The two went down in a heap, ending up in a position Jason knew all too well. And it didn't much matter to him that he'd put them in that state, it still tapped into the rage, his undying rage, as he walked up to the pair, pulling his spear from his back, flipping it over, raising it up…
Nightwalker's eyes widened behind the mask, as he was the only one who was looking up…
And then the door thudded down next to his head.
Uberjason stopped, surprised, much like Nightwalker was. The door that had kept the two of them from escaping was now on the ground, hammered off its hinges.
The pounding hadn't been in his head. It'd been whoever was hammering the door.
As Rocko walked in, eyes as blank as ever, stepping into the room, seemingly not surprised at seeing Jason Voorhees, all fancied up but still quite recognizable, though Jason actually seemed a bit surprised to see her. And who could blame him: he'd never seen a girl made out of rock before.
Rocko was silent, something that struck Nightwalker as odd…before he followed Rocko's gaze.
And found himself looking at Platinum Blonde's head, lying nearby, eyes wide open, uncomprehending of what had happened in her last moments.
Rocko'd seen it too.
The white eyes showed nothing, but the head followed the sight…to Platinum Blonde's prone body…and then to the shattered ruin that had once been Scorcher, maybe not recognizable to a stranger…but able to be identified by a 'family' member.
Uberjason just stared, still not sure what to make of it.
Rocko stared at Scorcher's body.
Nightwalker got the sense that a lack of proper equipment was the only thing preventing tears.
So he did what he had to, as he leaned up and pointed at Uberjason.
"HE did it!"
Well he was half-right.
Uberjason's head snapped down at the words, not wholly sure what they meant.
And then all he saw was a gigantic fist of stone filling his vision.
The blow rang through the whole room as Rocko punched Uberjason across the length of it, the psycho losing his chain spear as he flew and crashed down with a thunderous racket.
And all the slowness that had plagued Rocko before seemed to vanish, as she stampeded across the room, right at Uberjason, who was getting up despite the blow. So, whatever this creature was, it opposed him, and he always killed what opposed him. And he'd still held onto his machete, as Rocko closed in.
Uberjason's mighty slash was so strong it actually carved through Rocko's stone body.
Not that Rocko gave a damn, as her fist buried itself in Jason's chest and sternum. The blow floored Jason but didn't knock him down, as he slashed again, cutting another deep line. No blood, no effect, no relenting, as Rocko punched Uberjason on his metal side and actually dented some of the metal plates.
Uberjason slashed a third time, actually cutting off some of Rocko's stone fingers.
The other hand grabbed Uberjason, hoisting him up, even as the cut fingers floated back up to Rocko's hand and reattached.
"You THINK…" Rocko snarled, as she snatched the machete. "You can hurt me WITH YOUR PUNY KNIFE?"
Rocko snapped the blade in half between two fingers, even as her head shot out and slammed into Uberjason's with unbelievable force, his head snapping back, his mask dented, as Rocko reared up and slammed his body into the ground, a spiderweb of cracks shooting out from the floor, and then lifting him up and slamming him into the floor again, the whole room shaking, as Rocko lifted Uberjason up again…
And his hand shot out, plunged into one of Rocko's eyes, and yanked, pulling a large chunk of stone out of the golem's head.
Rocko didn't blink. And technically she couldn't.
"I'm not that kind of girl." Rocko said, and hurled Uberjason through the air. He slammed into the nearest wall so hard he dented the tough metal. Rocko charged again as Uberjason tried to pull himself out, at a loss. He'd fought policemen, he'd fought bounty hunters, he'd fought a psychic, he'd even fought an android reworked into a killing machine, and they all broke, so how could…
Rocko's shoulder slammed into Uberjason and the whole wall caved in as Rocko smashed him through it and into the ruined kitchen. Uberjason tumbled through the air and landed on his back, immediately starting to get up.
A left and right hand combination to his face hurled him off his feet, and as he landed on his back Rocko jumped on him, white energy spitting in sparks from her ruined eye, as she brought her fists down so hard the whole room shook, and again, and again, and again, cracks beginning to race across the floor, through the walls, and across the ceiling, and then the whole room started coming down.
"AUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rocko bellowed as she reared back up, and then came down with the mother of all blows.
The entire section of the school collapsed, burying Rocko and Uberjason among untold tons of wreckage, smoke pluming through the cafeteria and around Nightwalker and Jinx, who had watched the whole thing.
"…Whoa." Jinx said.
"Indeed, Mr. Reeves." Nightwalker replied, as he waved the smoke away. "You think she survived?"
"Maybe." Jinx said, as she headed for the giant pile of debris, stopping at the edge of it.
"You're not going to suggest we dig her out, are you?" Nightwalker asked.
"Don't know her THAT well." Jinx replied. "Maybe we should…"
The ruins stirred.
Jinx jumped behind Nightwalker, and then as he glanced wryly at her, she stepped out from behind him trying to act innocent.
A form lifted from the wreckage, a large form…Rocko. The golem floated up a bit and then rested on top of the rubble, even as several bits of stone lifted up from the huge pile and floated to her, fitting to her face and chest, her eye fixing itself.
"…It's done." Rocko said, and started walking, heading past Nightwalker and Jinx like they weren't there.
"…Hey!" Nightwalker said, turning around and heading after Rocko.
"What." Rocko replied.
"Uh…you don't really want to go alone, do you?"
"Whatever. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters." Rocko said, no emotion in her voice, but her 'feeling' clear.
"You think that will hold him?" Jinx asked, as the three headed out of the room.
"If a few cinder blocks tied to a chain kept him in a lake for seven years, a few dozen tons of rock and steel better damn sure hold him for a few hours, or I want my money back." Rocko replied.
"Yeah but you didn't shove a boat motor in his face." Nightwalker said.
Rocko's glare encouraged him not to say anything else.
Progeny let out a long slow breath as he leaned on the wall on the other side of the door. He'd thought he was done for when he'd turned the corner, but his mind hadn't frozen, and he tried the keypad. A miracle, it opened. Another miracle: it closed behind him when he hit the pad on the other side of the door. Progeny hadn't stopped to rest then though: he'd run through another door and closed it behind him as well before taking a breather. He thought he might be able to faintly hear the furious, snarling noises of his pursuer as he tried to get the door open, but the lack of the sound getting any closer gave Progeny confidence that it wasn't going to happen. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to hang around, as he shoved off the wall and took off down the hallway at a fast walk.
Not that he had any idea what he was going to do. He was all alone, and quite possibly the last person left alive in the Hive, being stalked by…well Progeny didn't know what the hell was after him. He didn't see how those damn corridors had anything to do with what had chased him. Hell, he could have sworn that was…
Progeny came to a three way junction, and studied it for a bit: it looked familiar, though with his stressed out mind it took a little while for him to remember why. He hated being stressed, and he had a feeling his usual method for coping with it wasn't going to be available to him. He still hated it. A lot.
It didn't keep him from remembering why the three way junction ran a bell: one of them lead to the first training room on the right side. A series of thoughts occurred to him: the training room was well lit, had very thick doors, and powerful locks. Provided nothing was already in the room, it was a good a place as any to hide. What he was going to do then…well, Progeny would think of that later.
On high edge, ready to go to pieces if he saw any movement, Progeny made his way down the hallway and to the training room, which was at the moment sparely 'decorated'. One corner of the room had desks and chairs in case the training was preceded or proceeded by lessons, and there was a random table or chair scattered about, but besides that the room was empty. The training devices were behind the walls, ceiling, and floor, to be called out as needed.
There didn't seem to be anyone in the room. Progeny peeked in a few corners just to be sure.
There were three entrances to the room: the one Progeny had come in through, one that lead to more training rooms, and one more which led to what had been planned as another training room but had been decommissioned 2/3 of the way through and turned into a storage room, although due to the fact the decommission had happened recently, there wasn't much stored in there. Progeny took a look, but there was nothing he could use as a weapon, not even a crowbar. Indeed, the only thing that was in the room, filling up two corners, were giant parts for the being built base and huge drums filled with fuel and other liquids that would be needed to run the base, the drums being over three times taller then Progeny. He couldn't use that as a weapon, so he just locked the door. Then he locked the door to the second training room and finally locked the way he had come in, constantly looking over his shoulder the whole time to make sure nothing snuck up on him.
Despite that, she still came out of nowhere, to the point where Progeny nearly fell apart in his surprise, as he whirled around, the sound of the door locking behind him, frantically trying to spin a battle plan. The room was huge, he could keep his distance, maybe go through a vent…
And then he actually saw who it was, and his fear was tinged with confusion.
It was a woman, a statuesque blonde, dressed in a Hive robe, with a very attractive face with cool greenish-blue eyes. Except Progeny had no idea who she was. And he would have noticed her if she had been around before…but how could…unless…
A strange thought occurred to him. He had a thing for blondes…especially tall, statuesque ones, which was exactly what this woman was. And he had told that to a certain woman earlier…
"Is that you Melanie?" Progeny asked, ready to bolt.
"…Yes. Yes it is." The woman replied.
Progeny relaxed.
"That's a nice talent you have there. Your voice even changes. Well done." Progeny said, pushing off the wall he had backed up against.
"…Thank you."
"Where were you?" Progeny asked. "I though I checked everywhere."
"I was…hiding. Under that desk." 'Melanie' replied. Progeny gave a sidelong look at it. Didn't he check there? Well maybe not: there was more then one desk.
"Well, I suppose. I guess you were hiding under there because of what's going on, right?"
"…Yes."
"Do you know exactly WHAT'S going on?"
"…No." 'Melanie' said. Unfortunately, Progeny didn't notice the guess-like tone of her answers, as he began going through the desk she had pointed out. Maybe if he'd missed the desk, he'd missed a weapon.
"Great. Well it's bad Melanie, quite bad. Unless you have some weapons, we could be in trouble. I doubt we can hide in here forev…" Progeny said, before something finally occurred to him.
"Melanie…you said it's hard for you to change. Despite what I said, this situation doesn't seem like it would be…conduct…tive…" Progeny said as he turned around from the desk and found 'Melanie' was now right up against him.
"I like you." 'Melanie' said.
"…Uh Mel…I know what I said and all…but this isn't a good time…"
"I want you." 'Melanie' said, as she leaned in and pressed her mouth to Progeny's.
Thoughts whirled in Progeny's head, that this was crazy, this was unnatural…but those thoughts were overwhelmed by hormones and a little voice going 'You locked the doors, what could happen?'.
And he was so sick with stress…he needed a release…
The best men have been laid low by their urges and appetites.
In an atmosphere like the one that pervaded the Hive base, screwing with his thought processes…Progeny didn't have a chance.
He grabbed Melanie and turned around, shoving the stuff on the desk off even as he reached under her robe.
Much to his surprise, she wasn't wearing anything underneath.
"Batteries! Batteries! Dah-do-dum! Clank!" Buzz Bomb rambled to himself, trying to do the little tune and sound effect that came at the end of commercials for Duracell. He was in one of the storage rooms, ripping everything apart in his search for batteries, and coming up empty handed much to his great annoyance. This was a giant base, it should be swarming with batteries! But nothing.
While he searched, Buzz Bomb sang quietly to himself.
"I started on a journey about a year ago, to a little town called Morrow in the state of Ohio. I've never been much of a traveler, and I really didn't know, that Morrow was the hardest place I'd ever try to go!" Buzz Bomb sang, rather tunelessly, as he tore stuff apart. "So I went down to the station for my ticket and applied, for tips regarding Morrow not expecting to be guyed. Said I, 'My friend, I'd like to go to Morrow and return, no later than tomorrow for I haven't time to burn.' Said he to me, 'Now let me see if I have heard you right. You'd like to go to Morrow and return tomorrow night. You should have gone to Morrow yesterday and back today, for the train that goes to Morrow is a mile upon its way…"
"Catchy little tune."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Buzz Bomb screamed, whirling around as he armed his laser gauntlet.
Flense grabbed it and yanked it up before he fired.
"Stop it. You'll hurt yourself." Flense said.
"Oz, be nice. Not all of us are handling this as stoically as you." Flay said.
"Yeah. I gotta admit, for a jock, you sure handle pressure well." The Hive woman, now known as Belinda, said. "Why is that?"
"I've had experience." Flense said as he let go of Buzz Bomb's arm.
"What kind of experience could a dumb job who stole some geek's suit have?"
"You'd be amazed." Flense replied darkly. "Can we go now? We need to keep moving."
"Do you have any batteries?" Buzz Bomb asked.
"No. Why do you need them?"
"It's a secret!"
"Oh for the love of…come on you. My act of charity for this year is not leaving your fool ass to be sliced." Flense said, as he grabbed Buzz Bomb's arm and started dragging him out of the room.
"But there might be batteries in here!" Buzz Bomb wailed.
"And there might not be." Flense replied.
"You're right, let's go." Buzz Bomb said, as he stopped being dead weight and dashed along past Flense. The tendril-wielding teen facevaulted.
"Why'd we have to find this bucolic before Gizmo…is Gizmo even still alive…I wonder…" Flense said as he headed after the group.
Gizmo was still quite alive, and currently hacking a computer.
"Come on come on come on…" Gizmo said, his fingers blurring over the keypad. A buzz sounded. "CRAP!"
The computer wasn't the one he needed, the one that could disable the shield. If Gizmo could find that, then he could hopefully escape.
Gizmo pushed himself back from the computer and went over to the door into the room, which he'd locked behind himself. While he did so he withdrew a new weapon he'd been working on lately, a device he'd, though he hated the fact, co-invented with Lucinda (partly because working with her drove home the fact she was smarter then him overall, and also because she was such a disturbed, creepy woman, forever looking at Gizmo like he was a slab of choice meat). It was a unique weapon composed of a special metalliplastic compound, one that through nanomachines manipulating electricity and magnetism, could morph the material of the weapon into virtually any type of blade or bludgeon, buttons on the handle selecting whatever you had programmed into it. It morphed fast too, making it pretty neat overall: Gizmo only didn't normally use it because he hated to fight hand to hand. It didn't have an official name, though Gizmo called it the RP Device, after Robert Patrick, who had played the T-1000 in Terminator 2 and the weapon was much like wielding a personal T-1000. Gizmo took it out in case anyone decided to come through the door, whether it was opened or closed, and Gizmo didn't have time to get his gun up.
In the end, he opened the door without incident. The metalliplastic flowed back into the handle as Gizmo went back to the computer and picked up his gun, continuing his search. He still had more then a few left. He just hoped that meant computers to check and not minutes to live.
"No way! THIS is the Camera Obscura?" Shimmer said, looking over the device that Rhinoceros Beetle had found and used to 'kill' Floral. She hadn't been able to catch Mittens, who had escaped, and that had depressed her. To distract her, Wilby had given her the camera and started to tell her what he thought it was, except Shimmer said she recognized it. Though she hadn't been able to place the exact recognition until a few seconds ago.
"Doesn't look like the average camera you could just pick up at a corner store." Wilby said, back in his normal small form as he tried to staple the bandages wrapped around Mammoth's torso together.
"But it's from a video game!"
"Yeah, I noticed." Wilby replied, as he put in the last staple.
"Owtch!"
"Sorry. There, that should hold." Wilby said, hopping down from the table, as Mammoth got up and took a few deep breaths.
"Hunh. Not bad shrimp. You should look into becoming a battlefield medic: god knows you're worthless when it comes to combat."
"Hey!"
"Don't fight." Shimmer said, still looking the camera over. "And you just found in on the ground?"
"Yeah, and…" Wilby said, as he began feeling around in his outfit for the gem.
Only to find, much to his surprise, that it was missing. Wilby, perturbed, patted himself down again. Gone. But where? Maybe it fell out when he'd transformed…or something…
In any case it had vanished, and Wilby felt that wondering why was a waste of time.
"Yeah?" Shimmer was asking.
"Nothing. Just that."
"So you found the camera."
"Yeah, but I didn't tell you what I did with it." Wilby said, and did so.
"…Ok it's official. I must be dreaming." Mammoth said at the end, and began pinching himself.
"I think any of us would have woken up by now." Shimmer said. "What's happening?"
"Uh…well I have a theory." Wilby said.
"Well don't keep us in suspense moron, talk!" Mammoth said.
"Uh, uh…well I need to ask you guys what you've seen first." Wilby stammered. Mammoth rolled his eyes, and started recounting his experience in a way that clearly indicated he thought this was a waste of his time.
Until he got to the part about the hell corridor, at which point Shimmer started looking confused.
"Baran, there was nothing there."
"Coulda sworn that…what Selinda?"
"THERE WAS NOTHING THERE BARAN. It was just a hallway. Which really made me wonder why you guys freaked out so much." Shimmer said.
"But Selinda, the hallway was clearly, well, wrong."
"No it wasn't!"
"This fits my theory guys." Wilby said. "You remember that weird power surge? Well…seeing how we've found something out of a video game…and all the weird things happening around here…I was thinking…maybe video games have somehow come to life?"
Silence.
"What the hell are you smoking?" Mammoth said.
"No, listen! This camera, from Fatal Frame II, and a corridor that shows a bad thing to you yet nothing to your sister…that sounds a lot like the Silent Hill video game series to me."
"Did you bang your head?"
"Baran, why do you keep insulting him? It's just a theory!"
"BECAUSE IT'S STUPID!" Mammoth suddenly roared. Wilby and Shimmer shrank back, something that Mammoth clearly realized as he saw the fear in his sister's eyes.
"I'm sorry Selinda. But this is…it's ridiculous! The idea of…games coming to life…I mean I've seen weird stuff, but this is…too weird! It…it…OFFENDS me!" Mammoth said, never knowing his thoughts echoed that of Raven, having gone through the same thing last year, right down to the description of the happenings 'offending' him, attacking his sense of place in the world, threatening to open up a line of thinking that would prove dangerous in its sheer consumption…
But unlike Raven, who in the end came to grips with it, Mammoth instead chose to deny it. I suppose one couldn't blame him.
"Whatever it is, it's poisoning this whole place. We need to get out." Mammoth said. "Wilby, get big and guard my sister's back. Anything happens to her, I'll kill you myself."
"But uh…Mammoth, it's hard for me to hold the camera at that size."
"I'll hold it." Shimmer said, slipping the line of leather over her head so the camera hung from her neck. Had that been in the game? Wilby forgot.
"…Ok, ok." Wilby said, and concentrated, his form expanding outward into his massive Hulk-like body.
"Oh, and by the way Wilby? If I run across some midget who tells me the princess is in another castle, you'll be the second one I hit." Mammoth grunted, as he headed down the hallway, Shimmer following him and Rhinoceros Beetle guarding the rear, moving forward in a slow and steady pace.
Slow and steady, on another hand, was about as far away as you could get from an accurate description of Zippy, as she ran frantically through the hallways of the Hive base, turning randomly, coherent thought completely obliterated under an unending surge of fear, pain, and panic. She knew only one thing: she had to run. Run away, run someplace else, just run run run…
How she avoided running into a wall during her tight turns was amazing, considering she was doing the superspeed equivalent of babbling. She was so out of control she actually ran past Flense, Flay, and Buzz Bomb's group, knocking a few of them over and nearly giving them all heart attacks. Zippy didn't even see them. She had to run. Get away from it all, get away, run run…
The door slammed shut in front of her.
Somehow, Zippy stopped, in a sense: she got rid of enough speed to prevent herself from slamming into the door with bone-shattering force. She still hit the door fairly hard though, and fell to the ground, dazed. But within two seconds she was back up, hammering on the door, clawing at it, needing to keep going, to run…she could run back the other way, as long as she could just keep going, going going going…
The other door slammed shut when Zippy was six feet away from it. Unable to work up any real speed, she skidded to a half as she realized she was trapped, sealed between two doors in a short length of hallway. And she wasn't a Speed Force user: she couldn't vibrate through cardboard, much less steel.
The enclosed space swallowed her scream of terror and despair, as Zippy began to redefine the concept of 'running in circles' as her brain continued to break down.
"Zippy's still alive." Nightwalker said, as if he heard her wail. "We have to find her."
"…She is?" Rocko said.
"Yeah. And we're going to go look for her." Nightwalker said, even as he glanced at Jinx. She couldn't read his expression, though she thought that he was trying to signal to her for some reason. "But there's a small problem."
"What?"
"I've completed wasted my ammo. We need to make a detour to my room and get more. Otherwise I'll be a burden if we run into another threat. Can't hide behind you for everything." Nightwalker said.
"…Huhn. All right. But make it snappy." Rocko said, as she turned to follow whatever way Nightwalker planned to go. Now Jinx understood: Nightwalker was trying to keep Rocko in the group, and considering Rocko seemed to have a cold, uncaring attitude towards pretty much anything besides the Elementals, he figured that just asking or telling Rocko that he needed to reload would result in Rocko heading off on her own. Which would be bad for Nightwalker and Jinx: maybe they could survive on their own but a powerhouse like Rocko would make it considerably easier.
Nightwalker's room wasn't very far, which didn't surprise Jinx: she had run into him relatively nearby, after he'd fled from Betelgeuse. The door opened with the punched-in code, and the three headed in. Nightwalker had lucked out: he'd come into the Hive at the same time a student who had once shown great promise was leaving, and he'd wound up with the solo room the student had abandoned. There wasn't much in it: a bed, a closet, and a highly modified cabinet that held all of Nightwalker's equipment.
Nightwalker swiftly went to work, removing his gauntlets and giving them a brief once over, and then began opening drawers and extracting ammo packs, putting them in piles before him. They all looked the same to Jinx, though Nightwalker seemed to be able to tell them apart. Spying the bed, Jinx decided to sit down, while Rocko stood there, motionless, like she was a piece of art rather then a walking, talking wrecking machine.
Seemingly satisfied with his ammo choices, Nightwalker opened another drawer and withdrew a first aid kit. He picked it up and opened up the closet, showing a few spare outfits, boots, and two more spare helmets. He selected one of each.
"I'll be right back." Nightwalker said, heading for the bathroom.
"Something wrong with out here?" Rocko asked.
"…I need the mirror." Nightwalker replied, and went into the bathroom, closing the door.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Jinx said, pulling herself farther up on the bed so she could lead on the wall that it was set up against, her feet dangling over the edge. "God, it's nice to be able to relax after all that."
"Went through a lot huh." Rocko replied dully, as if Jinx could suddenly spout a magic spell that would revive the Elementals on the spot and she couldn't care, that was how dull her voice was.
"Yes!" Jinx said, giving a very brief description of what she had gone through.
"Seemed like they were hunting you." Rocko said.
"Yeah, I thought that myself, but why?"
"I dunno. Maybe they just don't like you."
"What did I do?"
"Maybe they don't like your new friend."
"Nightwalker? Same thing: what did he do?"
"What do you know about him? Could be all kinds of reason that horrors would seek him out…even if they came from movies."
"Why would movie horror monsters that have magically come to life in a way that defies all sense want to personally seek out and kill, hell, anyone, much less Nightwalker!"
"Like I said Llarenes, in the end you don't know much about him." Rocko replied. Jinx blinked, but said no more.
Twenty seconds passed, as Rocko scanned the room.
"Don't get too comfortable there Miss Jinx. We need to be moving…" Rocko said, turning her eyes back to the bed.
Jinx was asleep. In fact, as Rocko looked at her, she began snoring loudly.
Rocko would have rolled her eyes, if she could do that any more, as she walked over and poked Jinx in the forehead.
"Uh, whuzzuh, Sister I'm sick today…"
Rocko poked harder.
And her finger fell off.
Jinx awoke, as much from the poke as the weight falling in her lap.
"Ah! I'm awake! What the…what's this?" Jinx said, picking up the stone.
Silence, as Rocko looked at her hand.
"What?" Jinx said.
The door opened and Nightwalker stepped back out, adjusting his new helmet as he put his old blood splattered one on a nearby desk along with his old outfit.
"Ok, bandaged up, just give me a few more seconds to load up and…what's going on?"
Then another one of Rocko's fingers fell off.
"Uh oh." Rocko said.
"Uh oh? I don't need to be hearing an uh oh, what is it making an uh oh?" Nightwalker said.
"Nothing that concerns you." Rocko said, turning around and looking at Nightwalker. "Tending your arm injury aside, did you really have to completely change outfits?"
"The last one was breached. Plus it was covered with blood. I HATE being covered in blood." Nightwalker said.
"Is that why you screamed 'Not again!'?" Jinx asked, remembering the odd cry.
"…Yeah. Twice in a minute. I hate blood."
"Then you've picked a bad business." Rocko replied.
"I can handle a little bloodshed, not great gouting sprays going all…Rocko your eye is falling apart." Nightwalker said.
Rocko's blank gaze didn't change, as she lifted a hand and felt around her head…and discovered that a section was indeed breaking down. The very section Uberjason had crushed, to be specific.
"…………Damn." Rocko said, and sat down heavily.
"Hang on, you said there wasn't any uh oh of my concern." Nightwalker said.
"It appears I was too generous with that assessment." Rocko said as she looked at her hand, which was clearly starting to loosen, the tightly packed rocks no longer perfectly put together.
"What's going on?" Jinx said, hopping off the bed.
"My…late friend Scorcher, as you recall, could not be mind controlled by Blood because attempting to control her mind interrupted the great deal of concentration Danielle needed to keep her fire powers under control, fire powers that would rage and destroy everything around her if not kept in check by that concentration. A concentration Danielle could lose if she became exhausted, as well." Rocko said. "My body works under a similar aspect, and it appears that I am, so to speak, running out of steam, losing my ability to keep myself together. In other words, I'm going to pieces."
"What? NOW? Why NOW? Goddamn it!" Jinx cursed. Rocko just chuckled darkly.
"While I have always assumed that it would take more then this to make me suffer such a state, hence this catching me…unawares, I might have just been overestimating myself. After all, Betelgeuse and Buzz Bomb did blow me up."
"What? Buzz Bomb?"
"It doesn't matter. But maybe it's not just that. I was there when Gizmo was speaking his theory that he saw on the blog, the theory you claim you overhead, on how not just the creatures of horror have invaded this place, but the 'way things work' as well. Under those rules I am an anomaly. Victims are supposed to die, not knock Jason into next week. In the face of this so called invincible statistic, it appears they are taking…another route…" Rocko said, as bits of stone began to fall from her head and chest.
"So…you're dying?" Nightwalker asked.
"No. I'm just exhausted, in human terms. I need to rest."
"For how long?"
"If I knew that I'd have said so." Rocko replied. "I am sorry you can't use me as a tanker, but in this state I'd be more hindrance then help." Rocko said, though her tone indicated she probably wasn't very sorry at all.
"…Crap." Nightwalker said, and spun on his heel, as he began stuffing ammo into his utility belt and pulling more out of the drawers. Apparently Rocko's condition had made him rethink his battle plan.
"Will you be all right?" Jinx asked.
"I'll be fine. Even if a creature comes along, they'll just find a pile of stones. And you can't, as the saying goes, get blood from a stone." Rocko said.
"Jinx, catch." Nightwalker said, tossing something to the pink-haired girl. She caught it, barely. It looked like a compact remote control with only three buttons.
"What's this?"
"High concussion miniature incendiary device. A somewhat fancier grenade, if you will." Nightwalker said, as he put another one in his belt and held out another. "Blue button is three second timer, green button is ten second timer, red button stops timer if you push one of the other two buttons accidentally. Fortunately they require some pressure so I think you can carry it in your pocket."
"Think?" Jinx said.
"Hey, nothing's certain in life." Nightwalker said, putting the second bomb in his belt. "Take this too." He said, tossing her a small swiss army knife. "You never know when a blade will come in handy."
"Here…" Rocko said, as she reached down and then literally opened her chest, extracting a few small satchels. "Something I grabbed in case there were any doors I couldn't knock down. High-end C4 bombs. Enough to blow through a few doors. More if you know what you're doing."
"…I know." Nightwalker said, grabbing the satchels, as he went back over to his closer, withdrew a larger bag, put the satchels in, zipped it shut, and slung it over his shoulder. "You want me to lock the door?"
"Doesn't matter." Rocko said.
"As you wish." Nightwalker said, heading out. After a bit, Jinx followed.
Rocko sat there, alone. It didn't much bother her, as she felt her body slowly breaking down.
Maybe she shouldn't have lied. Because she might need a lot more then a nap, the way she really fell…
Her head crumbled to pieces, her body swiftly following.
"What do we do now?" Jinx asked Nightwalker outside.
Nightwalker was about to reply, when he spotted movement.
The fired orb missed Mittens by an inch, as the cat jumped straight up in the air in surprise and then ran away before Jinx and Nightwalker knew what had happened.
"…Just my roommate's cat." Jinx said.
"Damn thing's lucky it hasn't been killed. You'd think it would take a hint and stop approaching people who are really on edge."
"He's probably just hungry."
"Feeding that cat is very low on my list of priorities Jinx."
"Then what's on top of the list?"
"I guess we try and find Zippy. Least we can do."
"And you can't think of anything else."
"Well yes but you insisted on calling me on it, thank you very much." Nightwalker groused, and started heading back the way they had come.
Trapped trapped trapped like a rat caught in a vise can't stay have to go get away run run run…
Unable to hold a thought or a coherent plan for more then a few seconds, Zippy careened all over the small enclosed space the doors had sealed her in, making and abandoning plans before they could even begin to get results, first hammering on the door, then punching the keypad, then scratching the door, then hammering on it again, then running around the hallway before starting over again, sometimes pounding in the walls or screaming sometimes thrown in for good measure. Nothing worked, and it just made it worse: it seemed like it was inevitable Zippy's brain would shut down and she'd curl up in a ball and never come out of it, leaving her easy prey for whatever monster came along next, because all she could do was run run run it started her life it was her life she had to run get away RUN…
Due to the small length of hallway, Zippy couldn't build up to her maximum speed, in which she actually turned into a bolt of lightning. But she was running back and forth enough that some of her electricity properties were starting to affect the space she was trapped in. The air had become charged with static, and there were actually scorch marks on the floor where Zippy had come to a stop.
And electromagnetism were all starting to come into play…
As it flew at Zippy, the girl barely being able to see what it was before it slammed into her face, knocking her down and against the wall, as she screamed and fought and clawed at her attacker…before realizing it wasn't attacking her. It was a metal grate, and it had been…attracted to her.
But where would the grate come from, unless…
Zippy saw it then, concealed partially in the ceiling shadows. An air duct, which the grate had covered, which led…somewhere, anywhere but here.
Small too, but that didn't concern Zippy. What mattered was it was an out, a way to get away, somewhere to run…
So Zippy ran up the wall (not especially hard to so even at human speeds) and clamped onto the edge of the grating, pulling herself in. She was a small girl, the size of her legs aside, and those were smaller then most people realized (Zippy hated having them photographed: they seemed grotesquely large in pictures), but as mentioned, the duct was small too. But where there's a will, there's a way…
She managed to make it fit, barely. But the very cramped conditions prevented her from performing anything but a slow forward crawl. And she had no idea where the air duct went.
But it didn't matter. She could keep going. So she did.
And speaking of impeded if not outright interrupted progress…
"Slippin rippin zang fang rotten consarn overfancy DOOHICKEY!" Billy Numerous cursed as he punched at the keypad that refused to let him in. He was CERTAIN this was a way out, but the darn door wouldn't open. And Billy had never been very good at remembering codes, as he hauled back and slapped the wall.
"Can't open it Billy?"
"Darn thing won't open Billy!"
"No good fancy tech!"
"City folk with their stupid e-lec-tron-nics, whatever happened to a good old length of chain and a metal lock?"
"It worked for great grandpappy!"
"All the way to pappy!"
"Until Bobby Bubba got tooted on that bad moonshine and drove his tractor straight through the side of the house, but there was ex-ten-you-atin' factors there!" Billy finished. Yes, that had all been Billy: when you could clone yourself, talking to yourself took a whole new meaning. And if you think I'm really hammering on Billy's supposed 'redneck' characteristics, it's not like his lone episode gave me much to build on.
"Did ya'll try password?" Billy asked.
"You know durn well Blood's not stupid enough to make it password!"
"Did you try it?"
"…Fine!" Billy said, and typed in PASSWORD.
BUZZ.
"See! Not password! Knowing Blood it's some silly high-falootin' word like 'antikatease' or 'shrimp toast'. Who the devil puts shrimp on toast anyway? Whatever happened to good ol' peanut butter…"
"Who's that?" Billy said, pointing down the hall, as the Billy working at the password (who happened to be the original Billy), turned away to see.
A man was standing at the end of the hallway. Billy arched an eyebrow.
"Hey! Who the heck are you!" Billy said.
The man didn't answer.
For some reason Billy felt his hackles raise. The man didn't look very threatened. True, he was tall (forget that: he was TALL: at LEAST 6'8, and quite possibly even taller), but he was also old, with shoulder length brown hair that had mostly gone to gray. He was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and tie, and his hands were clasped in front of him. As Billy watched, his left eye squinted, as if he had trouble seeing out of it…or if he was trying to examine Billy closer. Billy felt the hairs on his neck rise even more.
"Hey! Who ARE you?"
"You got a name?"
"Can you even talk, retard?"
The man did not reply. Instead, he turned, slowly, as if he was walking in slow motion, and started walking down the hallway.
"Hey! Wait a minute! You can't just walk away!" Billy said, as he started after the man.
And then he heard it, though he couldn't place just what it was. A strange humming whistle…
Then it flew around the corner, stopping dead in mid-air.
"What the…!"
The sphere turned, aiming itself down the hallway, and then it flew at Billy, who wisely ducked.
However, one of the clones behind him wasn't so lucky, as the sphere slammed into his forehead, blades shooting out and digging into the bone to lock it to his face, as the other clones jerked away from the impaled one, who stumbled back, yelling.
Then the horror really started, as the front of the sphere opened up, a drill emerging, and it only had one place to go.
Forward.
The clone screamed as the drill bored into his face, even as the original Billy felt the backlash: he was linked to his clones, and while he didn't exactly feel what they felt, he still felt it, though for him it was more like a maddening itch. And he only noticed it in a very small way, as he was too busy staring in horror as blood shot out of the back of the sphere in a great stream, splattering on the floor as the sphere lobotomized the clone, which finally fell, blood pouring down its face.
Billy stared, feeling like he had been punched in a stomach. His clones could die, he knew that. He even knew, through testing, that it didn't affect him all that much: his 'master' body remained unharmed. But it didn't feel good, oh no, and hence Billy did his best to avoid it. And here was this damn flying ball drilling into his clone's head…
The sphere had killed it.
And Billy didn't like that.
So he acted, as he ran up and kicked the sphere, ripping it from the clone's head with a messy wet breaking noise. It hit the wall and lurched off, still floating but very wobbly, and then Billy kicked it again. It fell to the ground, and all the Billys proceeded to stomp on it until it stopped moving, thoroughly crushed.
The dead clone was already fading away. Billy had never fully understood his talent: a Hive scientist had once explained it as "The ability to manifest a separate yet linked physical sentience via manipulation of the molecules of matter" but Billy had become lost after the forth word. All Billy knew was he could make more of himself, his clones could as well, and they could command each other and know what the other was thinking, but they all manifested pain, and death, by themselves, and once they died, the whatever connection that had allowed Billy to make them was broken and they returned from the nothing he had pulled them from. The only way to stop Billy was to either exhaust his abilities to clone (and after the Titans beat him he was more aware of those), or harm or kill the original Billy, which was damn hard when he could so easily lose himself in all the copies he had summoned/made from nothing.
And Billy now had a hankering to stomp that old man into the same nothing. Oh, he had sent that sphere, Billy didn't need any of those so called smarts that scientist had, and he was going to pay, because no one…
"Here comes ANOTHER!" A clone screamed.
It was two, actually, as the spheres hit the corner and stopped (they seemed to have trouble turning). In the tight confines, Billy fell all over himself trying to get out of the way, and wasn't very successful. One sphere pinned a clone's hand to the wall, while another hit the back of another clone. The spheres didn't get a chance to engage their drills this time though, as other clones seized the spheres and yanked them out, hitting and smashing them until they were 'dead'.
"That's IT." Billy said, as he began rapidly forming more of him, the whole hallway filling up. "Let's go stomp a mudhole in that senile coot's ass!"
Billy agreed, as they all charged down the hallway, some diverting into rooms to grab weapons, as they went after the man, who as far as Billy could tell was headed for one of the training rooms.
It's funny how a forcible slowing down can affect your thought process. Though slowing down didn't come to Zippy easily, for obvious reasons. But trapped in the tight confines of the air duct, her brain found it just didn't have the energy to keep ricocheting around like a pinball and began to slow down, returning to a state that couldn't claim to be normal but was a hell of a lot more ordered then it had been five minutes ago.
Oddly, Zippy found herself remembering the past…
Memories. Memories of happier times and places. Namely, her home. Not her home as in her father's house, that was almost as nightmarish as this hellhole. No, she was talking about her home in Beach Shine City, California. One memory came to mind, Halloween, six years ago. It was her first Halloween with the Elementals. She was thirteen years old and Floral was eleven, so they planned to go trick or treating together. However, despite her leniency and right to free will, Danny (probably nineteen at this point) wouldn't let them go out without a chaperone…
"Trick or treat!"
The two girls held up their bags to a door as it opened slowly, a disgruntled looking man coming to the door. Floral was wearing a SWAT officer costume, complete with mini-gasmask, helmet and walkie-talkie, while Zippy was wearing the classic outfit of Storm from the X-Men. Having seen them on TV, she wanted to try it out, despite the fact that Storm was black, and Zippy was yellow with a wig on.
"I ain't givin' a freaky thing any candy." He said, noticing Zippy's skin tone, though not Rose, as she was covered in SWAT gear.
"Sothat'saTrick?" Zippy asked, somewhat disappointed, but at the same time almost excited.
"What?" The man said, unable to decipher Zippy's rapidfire speaking manner.
"Atrick?"
"…Yep, a trick. Do ya worse." The man at the door taunted, about ready to close said door in the young girl's faces, though he paused when Floral lifted up her mask and placed two fingers in her mouth, whistling sharply. He snorted to himself: probably some small dog to yap at him, one he could easily scare away. He had been notorious for turning away small children who dared to come on to his property and try to get food off him (part of him wondered why he even bothered to answer the door at all), and this year was no different from the rest. This was the night of ghouls and ghosts, a small dog won't….
And then something came down the path.
It sure as hell wasn't a dog.
It was a huge creature in ruined clothing, torn rags that hung limply from its mammoth frame, a white mask covering its face. If it wasn't so dark you would be able to see what looked like stone work underneath the clothing. The creature defined the term giant, and was muscular at that, and here he came, lumbering down the path, redefining the term 'huge' as he grew closer with each step, making the ground shake along with said step, though the man would never know that was simple, though subtle geokenetic manipulation rather than the creature's size. Also, each step seemed to make the plants around him wilt, though again this wasn't due to him but delicate plant control on behalf of another individual. All things considered though, it was one scary piece of work, one that might have made the man at the doorstep wet his pants if he had anything to drink earlier.
The creature roared at the man on the doorstep, raising up what looked like a chainsaw, except it was like he was, beyond normal size, though because of the light it looked slightly off. The man could only gawp at the sight, unable, unwilling to accept this, but unlike Mammoth or Raven, he was yet to be 'offended' by this: to him it was just plain terrifying.
"Youweresaying?" Zippy asked, holding up her bag for the goodies, perfectly in time with Floral. The man just stared in shock as he gave them as much as he could find in the cupboards, petrified completely out of his wits. That was indeed one hell of a trick: these two would go down in legend. Maybe he should actually give stuff to kids from now on?
The two girls and their 'monster' walked on down the path and up to the next door, knocking on it. This time a middle-aged woman answered, looking in much higher spirits, as she actually had a costume and the paraphernalia outside her house. Dressed as a generic witch outfit the woman smiled broadly.
"Trick or treat!"
"Oh you two do look a picture. Is that you under there Rosie?" She asked, trying to look under the mask, only to get an excited nod from the young girl. "So who's your very extravagant friend here?" She turned to the hyperactive girl who stood there, humming to herself.
"This is Sally! She's living with us now!" She smiled contentedly, putting her arm around the young Zippy's shoulder and giving her a quick squeeze, which seemed to get the response of waving.
"Oh how wonderful! But isn't it a bit late for you girls to be out though?" She asked, raising an eyebrow as a look of mild worry came over her face.
"Oh, we're not alone!" She pointed to the monster behind her, who reared up with both arms and yelled, though minus the earth shaking or the wilting flowers. Even his voice wasn't half as scary as it had been, though it was enough to make the older woman step back a bit, only to relax and breath heavily, placing a hand on her collarbone, trying to calm herself down.
"Oh! Rocko! You really are a mean one!" She said, a laugh in her shocked voice as the creature brought his arms down and lifted up his mask, revelling a face covered in bandages, which also wore on it a large smirk. The bandages crossed the nose, mouth and head, leaving the eyes exposed, eyes full of humour.
"Hey Lady Grey, didn't mean to send you greyer. Do I get a hug this year or what?" He asked, chuckling to himself, though this earned him a slap on the arm, with him backing up in mock defence and fear. Yes, this was Rocko, aka Lorant Smith, when she was a he. Rocko was a young, vibrant man with rock like skin, though unlike her present state he had flesh on the inside, it was just his skin that was tough and coarse. Standing it at six foot seven and 21 years old, he was best friends with H-Duo (A play on H20, as in Water), or as those closest knew him Henry Dubowski, though that was only Scorcher and Rocko: the other girls didn't know his real name and just called him "H" or "Duo".
Rocko was well known as a hero in these parts, not wanting to give up on anything but at the same time having a good time at whatever he was doing. Always cracking jokes, he was never taken seriously by anyone, including the hundreds of women he seemed to 'proposition'. Zippy had been with the group less than a year, but even she could tell that he had a particular notoriety when it came to women and that was he was completely useless.
This was Beach Shine City, California. A small town that was once the base of a huge city, hence it's name, until a giant earthquake reduced it to smouldering rubble. Unable or unwilling to rebuild it fully, either because there was no money or everyone had left, it became a town, home to less than 10,000 people, but despite it's small size it was a good place to be and even had it's own local team, the Elementals.
At the time, Scorcher and her team had been like how the Titans used to be, before the arrival of Savior; Young, carefree and loving life. They were more of a group of friends than a team, going out for pizza wherever possible, getting into surprising shenanigans, staying up late and worrying about, as the papers put it, Boyfriends, School and Justice on the weekend. In all fairness the Elementals did a wonderful job, and Beach Shine was known as one of the most pleasant places to live as everyone looked out for each other, and in turn people knew each other there.
It was kinda like the show Cheers in that respect.
But to those lucky few, this was home. They had everything they really needed, friends, family, a home, a job, a store, and a car so they could visit neighbouring cities, actual cities, to pick up anything Beach Shine didn't have.
"Now don't eat all that tonight, or you'll be sick and Danny won't be happy." Lady Grey said while she handed them their well-earned sweets. "By the way, where is she anyway?"
"Oh she had to help volunteer at the last minute: she would be out with the girls otherwise, so I offered to watch the brats… I mean the little darlings." Lorant said a smirk on his face and a laugh in his voice, making sure that the 'brats' heard the last part.
"Old man!" They both retorted, not looking too impressed.
"Well take this back so you three 'old people' can enjoy some adult chocolate." Lady Grey said as she handed him a box of fancy, hand made treats as a thank-you for all the effort they put into the city, and more so they could enjoy themselves without stealing any of the children's sweets. He took off his mask, placing it to his chest and bowed lightly, before the three waved goodbye.
When the night was over, Rocko led the children home to meet an expecting Scorcher, who had just arrived home and was talking with another figure. He was only an inch taller than she was, and with her roaring fiery hair it was hard to tell any height difference at all. He had a handsomeness about him that could make women melt, but at the same time a sort of ruggedness that prevented him from ever being classed as a 'pretty boy'. His frame was thin and light, though it had enough muscle on it so he could hold his own in a fistfight. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, though what was strange about it was its style… It was made out of something, and it didn't look like hair.
Water.
It flowed like water, it shone like water and if you actually got close enough it tasted and smelt like water (though that fact was, how shall we say, very obscure), though the hair stayed in one place, unlike actual water, which needed a container to do so. His skin was a subtle blue, a light colour not many would have expected. His outfit was casual, and he spoke to Scorcher in a tone that, like his appearance, was contradictory. A harsh nature was placed delicately over his well-spoken manner. This was Henry Dubowski, H-Duo, the man that Scorcher had gone through hell and high water to try and bring back. Or as Floral put it, Dad.
"We're home!" Rocko called, taking off his mask for the last time and unwrapping some of the bandages on his face so his mouth could be seen.
"The girls okay?" Scorcher called back. Barely an adult herself, and she had so much responsibility heaped onto her shoulders, which were not as slender as they are today. Better food and a habit of building herself up so she could be a walking fireplace all winter usually did that to a person.
"Yeah, they're fine." He called back. At this point, the two of them came in and dumped their gains onto the table. It seemed that with a real life monster on their side, they had managed to score more candies than all the other two child teams who would try to muscle in on their territory, so to speak.
Rocko put down his carefully constructed cardboard chainsaw (hence why it had looked off), as Scorcher lightly rubbed Floral and Zippy's hair, before quickly reaching in and grabbing a handful of candy.
"HEY!" Both the pre-teens yelled, but before even Zippy could do anything Scorcher was unwrapping and eating them.
"Just making sure that they are okay to eat." She said with a smirk, munching away happily.
"Liar!" The girls accused in a playful manner.
"Well think of it this way." H-Duo started, cleaning his glasses. "If she DOESN'T, that means we don't get a fireplace for Christmas this year." He smiled lightly, stroking his chin with his free hand after having wiped his glasses. He needed a shave, Zippy remembered thinking.
"Yeah, you have to let your queen grow fat on your offerings!" Lorant snarked, acting as melodramatic as he usually did.
"I don't get fat!" Scorcher said, throwing a wrapper at him, alongside a jawbreaker, which hit him square on, making him recoil in mock terror and pain.
"ThisisthebestHalloween EVER!" Zippy declared, waving her arms in an excited manner.
"Oh?" Duo asked, as both the young girls looked at each other, before turning and shouting, which could only leave a slight smile on the faces the young adults.
"YES!"
Zippy sniffed, a tear running down her face. Such better days…all gone. H-Duo was dead, killed in the event that had set the Elementals on the path they had walked, straight to the Hive…and to this bizarre distortion of reality that had claimed them all. Rose, Danielle, Antoinette…all gone, cut down like dogs. And Rocko…well maybe she was still alive, but only in the loosest possible sense. Lorant's original body was long dead, and seemingly all of his caring and joy with it: his laid back witticisms had been replaced with somber silence, a life without living. She, Zippy, was the last of the living Elementals.
Why should she go on?
Maybe she was the last Elemental period. And without them, Sally Markson had no identity. Forget her speed or electricity powers, her past, her relationships…all she had had was them, her family. All gone…all gone…
…Why keep fighting? She could just go with them. Just lay back and let the world take her…
Zippy's journey came to an abrupt end as she finally came to another grate. As if on autopilot, Zippy pushed on the grate until it fell off, and then she yanked herself out of the grating, flipped over herself as she held onto the edge of the air duct, and then dropped to the floor. She appeared to be in one of the training rooms.
Her legs were cramping, preventing her from running, so she started walking it off, even as her thoughts swirled.
Just give it all up…stop trying…
She saw the desks then, and more memories came to her…
"And whut can we all learn from this here situation?"
A classroom, possessing everything a classroom should have: seats for students, albeit done in the style of a lecture hall rather than a high school, students themselves, a teacher's desk, a revolving blackboard, even an apple on the teacher's desk. And of course, a teacher, Scorcher, who was rolling away a TV, on which the class had seemingly just viewed something that Scorcher was now asking them about.
"Yes Rosie?" She said as she pointed to a young student in the front row.
"That a Hostage situation tends to lead to easier arrests."
"This is indeed true, but ain't quite what I'ma looking for."
"Ma'am?" Wilby said, as he raised his hand, and she nodded in anticipation to see what answer he would come out with. "That your plan is only as good as your escape route?"
"Yes, those two points are whut I wanted, thankin' you kindly Wilby and Rosie." Scorcher turned and started to write on the blackboard. "For you see, because if ya'all are in a hostage situation, eight times out of every ten you will be standing still! You will be in a buildin' because that is where the hostages you wanted ARE!" She drew lots of arrows pointing to a, rather crudely drawn, building on the board. "Unless you only have one hostage, moving 'em would be a suicide mission as with any large number of people, some of them could escape and get help, or if'in ya already been discovered then you're really in fur a treat because SWAT teams will be tryin' to put a hole through ya."
"Then why don't we just forget the teams and rob the bank ourselves?" Cord said. "I don't need any losers dragging me down."
Scorcher looked over at the arrogant teen, and pondered whether she should give him the effort of a thought or just light him on fire. In the end she chose the thought.
"Remember class, this is a world where very few of you can make it on your own. You have to watch out for each other. That's why you should form teams, and not denote others as worthless. Giving up on others is the same as giving up on yourself, and vice versa. And those who give up…well, you're stealing the money and the jewels and the whatnot from them. They don't deserve them for giving up, so we take them. Because in that kind of apathy, you don't even deserve to die."
Before she could continue however, the bell rang and shouted out that it was time to go.
"Alright, seein' as it's the Halloween party tonight I won't e givin' ya homework, nice ol' me." She said to her class with a smile. Though it seemed to fade when all she got was a few smiling glances. "This is the part where ya say I'm not that old…"
The memory brought a pause to Zippy, as she remembered just how Scorcher and her had once been good guys, and to try and bring back Duo, they had crossed the moral line and become villains, Scorcher even teaching kids how to properly commit crimes, something that would have once been anathema to her. But she'd been willing to give up, to sacrifice, to bring the family back together…
Maybe Zippy should too. If she was the last of the Elementals, maybe it would soil Scorcher's memory to give up. Scorcher had been willing to sacrifice and grit through the pain in the hopes a brighter future would come of it. Maybe that was Zippy's burden now, to go onward on her own…
Because as Scorcher had herself said once, fate has a funny way of popping up reasons to keep going…
And then Zippy saw the robe.
It lay on the desk, limp and flat. Seeing how it was the only thing in the room, Zippy was naturally attracted to it, as she walked over, getting the last of the kinks out of the way as she did so. She looked down at it. A Hive robe…what was that doing on the table. Zippy lifted it up…
And jerked her hand away, the limb coming back sticky. She hadn't noticed due to the dark purple coloring, but the robe wasn't dry. It was soaked with blood.
And then Progeny's head fell down onto the pile.
Zippy screamed, backing away, looking at the head…what was left of it. Progeny's talent may have been disturbing, but the ability to fly apart and have your body protected by some kind of shield in the process could make one hard to kill. No sense pulling off a head if it came off naturally.
But whoever had done the deed had apparently taken that into account, because only half of Progeny's head was there. The rest was gone, the head perfectly ripped in half, brains oozing from around the fractured skull, a sightless, confused eye staring at Zippy, as if wondering, how could I fall for the classic rule: never have sex in a horror film.
Especially if you're not wholly sure who your partner is. Progeny thought it was Melanie, and the essence surely helped him think that…but we know it wasn't Looker. Then…who was it?
Zippy walked up again, as if trying to make absolutely sure it was Progeny, and if so, maybe tell who had done this to him…
Not who.
WHAT.
It plunged from the ceiling, and Zippy shrieked and ran backwards as short but powerful claws nearly missed her neck, the desk collapsing under the impact as the creature landed on it. It remained semi-crouched, looking at Zippy with angry, reptilian eyes that were colored a dark orange color.
It looked human only in the barest sense: It stood upright, and from the bare breasts it was clearly a woman. But there was no soft flesh or hair on this creature: its body looked composed of a organic black armor, spines extending from her back and her head a long elongated, upright, and interlocked series of tendrils that reminded Zippy of the hairstyle of the Bride of Frankenstein. It looked like someone had crossed a human with one of the xenomorphs from the Alien series.
Which made sense, didn't it? After all, the same artist had created both fictional creatures. The alien…and the being before Zippy.
"Sil." Zippy said.
She remembered the film, a movie called Species. Scorcher had gotten it expecting a strong grrrl power theme, not expecting there to be so much violence. Sil was the villain, a human/alien hybrid that was driven by one thing: an overpowering desire to mate. She had clearly tried with Progeny, but had found him lacking in some way (perhaps his talent disturbed her), and when it came to lovers, Sil was very much like a praying mantis. But why would she be looking at Zippy…
Then Zippy remembered another scene, when Sil had first tried bar hopping and met competition in the form of another woman. Competition Sil had dealt with viciously and brutally.
And people were always telling her that the sexual tension between her and Hermes could be cut with a knife…
The same tension that Sil was apparently picking up, maybe not in the same form but still sensed and interpreted. As a threat.
Organic tentacles on Sil's body were holding something, Zippy realized. Progeny's body. Apparently Sil had gotten hungry and had been snacking up on the ceiling when Zippy had shown up.
She released it, withdrawing the tentacles back into her, her fingers clenching.
"Uhoh." Zippy said.
Her speed amazed even Zippy.
"Damn it! Looks like we missed him." Patrick said, examining the computer room that had once had Gizmo in it.
"Well then let's move people they're not paying us by the hour!" Belinda said, as the Hive drones and students started back down the hallway.
"Why won't you let me look for batteries…" Buzz Bomb whined.
"QUIET!"
Buzz Bomb scurried behind Flense, whimpering. Flense pulled away from him with an aggravated snort.
"Why is he even in this group?" He asked Flay.
"Well when he's calm he really is a genius with explosives…"
A sudden eruption of noise came from Flay, or rather his coat, which nearly got him shot as the drones whirled around, arming their guns.
"AHHHHHHH!"
"Watch it!" Flense yelled, grabbing the guns with his tendrils. "It's just his communicator!"
"Yeah, it is…" Flay said, a bit surprised as he withdrew said communicator, a giant racket coming from the small device. "I thought all communications were down…"
The sound at the other end consisted of a whole bunch of voices…but they were all the same, which let Flay get a bead on the speaker.
"Billy, is that you?"
More racket.
"BILLY!"
"What the…hey the communicator's working! That you Simon?"
"Yeah!"
"Well good to know someone else is alive! I got separated from everyone and I'm all by lonesome now! But don't worry, I've got plenty of company to do what needs to be done!"
"Billy you…what needs to be done?" Flay asked.
"Some old geezer picked a fight with me! So I'm going to go give him a good kickin'!"
"An old geezer?"
"Yeah, ancient bugger, screwing up his face at me, throwing these damn killer orbs, ran off for one of the training rooms, but I'll get hi…teach h…esse w…" Billy's voice began to garble and break up.
Flay was about to reply for clarification, when Flense suddenly grabbed the communicator away from him.
"BILLY, STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" Flense roared, startling everyone.
"…whu…" Was all that came out.
"BILLY, GET AWAY! THAT'S THE TALL MAN! YOU CAN'T HANDLE HIM! GET AWAY! STAY…away…SHIT!" Flense said, as nothing was coming from the communicator but static.
"The Tall Man?" Belinda asked.
"Betelgeuse and the Creeper are nothing compared to him. If he's in this place, he's ready, and he'll sift Billy like wheat if we don't get there, NOW." Flense said.
"Why do you care?" Asked one of the unnamed drones.
"…………..I've seen enough death tonight. Besides he's yo…our teammate!"
"And does he deserve to be if he can't handle an old man?" Shane asked.
Flense looked grim.
"That's no ordinary old man. And what's worse then him is what he commands."
Which Billy was finding out first hand, as he had been putting the once again dead communicator away as he swept into the training room with his army of one, so to speak.
Who all stopped dead.
The room had been cleared away, blood still slick on the floor, and in the middle of the room stood a mortician's table, with what had once been a Hive drone's body lying on it. Now…
The Tall Man pulled his hands from the opened up head of the drone, slowly turning to look at Billy, even as he withdrew a small cloth and wiped his hands on it, looking at the amassed group.
"…So. You came to me." The Tall Man said, in a ragged, dragging voice that overflowed with menace. "Very well then…" The Tall Man continued, as he picked up what looked to be a tuning fork from next to the body. "BOY." He finished, dragging out the Y.
And The Tall Man rang the fork.
And on the ceiling, the sight that had stopped Billy…the spheres. Hundreds and hundreds of them, thousands, most a polished silver, some a radiant gold…and all of them starting to move.
And before Billy could do anything, the door slammed shut behind him.
"…Well stomp on frogs and shove a crowbar up my nose." Billy said in soft shock.
And the spheres flew down, whirling around the Tall Man as he looked upon his new material, his fresh meat, his expression never changing but looking satisfied all the less, as the legion of spheres lanced at Billy.
"If that doesn't hold him for at least a few hours, I want my money back."
Fool. Who did she think she was?
In what had once been a cafeteria, wreckage began to stir.
Maybe this would hold down anyone else, but he was beyond such things!
The wreckage erupted as the massive figure shoved it off of himself. He was Jason Voorhees, anti-life itself, and a few middling tons of rock wasn't going to stop him!
Uberjason cracked his neck, and then reached down to his side. Rocko maybe have broken his machete…
Uberjason withdrew another, this one old fashioned, nearly black with rust and the blood of victims.
Yeah, the classics were always the best.
Uberjason walked across the room and retrieved his chain-spear, and then on a whim, walked over to the shattered fire protection display and retrieved the axe from it. Yeah, just like old times.
Except this time he'd leave them all lying in a pool of blood, as he turned and began walking, hunting, seeking the living to make them the dead.
CH CH CH AH AH AH…