A Dark Cloud 2 Fanfic
Chapter 2: The Darkening----By The Several
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"Max, her time has been erased." Those words echoed inside his head like a voice from a deep well - a depth so low it shook the shackles of his sanity.
Max suddenly stood up in the shock, making the chair he was sitting on fall on to the floor with an echoed thud - an echo inside his mind. For him, everything became slower, as if time had stopped for him to ponder on those thoughts. He was sure he heard Donny's words correctly, but that made him wish he didn't. "W… What are you talking about?"
Before Donny got a reply, a sudden scream came from outside his house. "What was that?" Donny wondered.
"Trouble. One after another," Max replied. His life had been a string of strange events that were interconnected into one another, and he was positive that whatever was happening to Monica had something to do with the commotion outside his house… which will then escalate into the largest scale imaginable.
Slamming the doors open, he ran outside, only to be horrified that several of the townsfolk were wounded and lying down on the ground. He couldn't tell if they were unconscious or dead, but whatever the case was made Max want to find whatever did this and destroy it.
Problem was, there was nothing in sight. Aside from the strange, black snow that rained earlier, there was nothing else unusual.
Suddenly, Max is tackled by something growling from his side. Max girdles in pain, but when he opened his eyes, there was nothing there. "W… What is going on?"
Suddenly, for a moment, his eyes tweaked and he could see an indescribable "bend" in the space. Hoping either that this was all a bad dream or that his theory was correct, Max took out his optimized battle wrench, Sigma Breaker, and swung as hard as he could where the space "bended."
Max smiles as the latter hope was correct, and he could hear his attacker dissipating from existence, the bend in space restoring to normal.
"Max, what the cow farmin' dairy local was that?" Donny asked, surprised as he was watching Max from the door to his house.
"I didn't understand that expression you just said, but these attackers… they're invisible! Look at the space around you, and if you see some sort of bend in the air, that's where they are!"
"Got it," Donny okay-ed as he assembled his weapon and aimed it at the nearest space distortion. "Good thing I always be carryin' my patented Glacier Machinegun, "Baby"! Eat frozen lead, that's what ya takin'!" With his oddly phrased battle cry, Donny went full-auto on every space distortion around Max's house, eliminating the strange new enemies with sharp ice needles that shot at full speed from his Glacier Machinegun.
"You named your weapon "Baby"?" Max asked as he too eliminated the invisible creatures in the area with his customized battle-wrench.
"What can I do? You took my baby, so I made a few of my own!" Donny replied, referring about the gun he gave Max at the beginning of his adventures.
Before long, Max and Donny realized that the space distortion farther from them were getting fewer, but the ones around them were increasing.
"Donny, I think they're after something in this particular direction."
"I don't doubt it. My guess is, they're after Monica."
"Well, not while I'm around!" Max replied, doing a spin attack on the faceless pursuers, eliminating the closer ones.
"Hey, Max! Let us!" a voice from nowhere said.
In the sudden instant a familiar train literally jumped out in front of them from a time vortex and ran over the invisible enemies, destroying them all in the process.
"Whoah! Is that the Ixion?" Max wondered, as the glowing badly-designed train stopped in front of Max's house.
Donny shook his head. "Dang man, that is ugly! Who the heck designed this overly-electrified heap?"
"That would be me," a voice from inside an opening door in the front car said. It was Osmond - the designer of Ixion, and Doctor Knobb - another friend from the future Luna Lab - was there too. "And for criticizing my work, remind me to tell my ancenstors in this time to bother you for the rest of your life."
"Believe me, Osmond, even in the future, it's happening," Knobb replied with a chuckle, referring to Osmond and himself (who was Donny's future kin).
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Osmond said, raising his fist at the other doctor.
Donny was confused, as the two strangers suddenly argued relentlessly with each other. "Max, who's the masked bunny and the guy with the bad haircut?"
"Oh. That's Doctor Osmond and Doctor Knobb. They're from the future where Monica came from… Oh man! Monica!" Max suddenly remembered. Max ran inside the house and checked how she was.
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The people outside that were attacked by the invisible creatures were taken to Doctor Dell's house,and after several arguments later, Knobb and Osmond finally settled down inside the room where Monica was lying down in Max's house.
"I was right all along," Knobb thought, examining Monica's condition. "As I thought, she was affected by ChronoPulsation."
Donny was stunned. "Hey, I never told anyone but Max about that! How did you know what I called her sickness?"
"Because in our future's history, you were the one who named it."
"Oh."
"So, you can fix her, right?" Max suddenly shot out, interrupting their menial conversation.
Osmond stood up and took out a medical bag. "Sure, sure… I'll just inject a rejection vaccine to her, and she'll be good as new." With that, he took out an injection, and filled it with some sort of fluid from a bottle. After injecting Monica with it, he breathed a sign of relief to its success. "Whew! That should do it. Because of the rejection vaccine, her body will counter the fact that she's not from our time. As you can see, we've already injected ourselves with this to prevent our own erasures. Now all we have to do is wait." But only seconds later, Monica already started moving.
"Well, that was fast," Knobb scratched his head in wonder.
Seeing her improvement, Max leaped to where Monica was lying and cried out, "Monica! Monica!"
Donny patted him on the shoulder with an embarassed sigh and said, "Don't be dramatic, genius. She's just tired."
In that instant, Monica stood up, still feeling a little groggy. And then, with a snap, closed her eyes and inhaled for a big one. "MAAAAX! WHEEEERE THE HECK ARE YOU?" she shouted as loud as she could, sending everyone else in the room falling from their chairs. Obviously, Monica thought Max still hasn't found her yet.
"Um, here I am," Max said weakly as he tried to stand up from his fall.
Monica dropped a sweat. "…Oh."
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Before long, Max, Monica, and the others were back to their seats, and had explained to her what had happened so far.
"Before… you said that Monica's time was erased… right?" Everyone looked to Max, who was looking down, cringing and shaking. Suddenly, he took Donny by the neck and held him harshly against the wall. "YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE LYING!"
Everyone was surprised at his sudden attack. They know exactly why he was angry though. His mother was also from Monica's time.
Monica then tried to pry his hands away from Donny. "Don't take it out on him, Max! It wasn't his fault!"
Max stopped, releasing Donny from his death grip. "You're right… It isn't..." He then fell on the wall on his knees, crying. "But mom… She's still there… and Crest… and everyone…"
Monica led him to his chair again, and although she herself felt like either crying or blaming it on someone, she perservered and decided to change the topic instead. "Those invisible creatures that you said attacked this town… They're involved in this, aren't they?"
"Yes. That fact we're quite sure of," Osmond replied. "Those invisible creatures that bent space in the area where they exist – also known as space distortions – are actually pieces of destroyed time, most likely the time that our new enemy has destroyed so far… including our own time, Monica."
"Another enemy?" Donny hysterically complained. "Man alive! How many evil beings are there that the Ancient Ones made with world-destroying powers? is this another Star of Oblivion?"
"Actually…" Knobb said in a more serious tone. "…This new enemy is not quite like the others. Yes, the information about this enemy can mostly be found in the Ancient One's scriptures, but…"
"…But what?"
"I don't know what our enemy is called," Knobb continued, "but what we do know… is that it is a huge beast that has the power to eat all dimensions of time… and that it cannot be seen, or hurt with any weapon at all."
"Great! Huge, destructive, invincible, and invisible! That's the most lethal combination of traits a time-eating beast can have!" Donny shouted in panic, tearing of his own hair in anger. "And you're sure no weapon can hurt it?"
"To tell you the truth," Osmond instead replied. "Even the Ancient Ones tried to kill this unnamed beast… but they utterly failed. What we need to find out is where to get more kn—"
Suddenly, a great quake shook the foundations of the house to its limits.
"Oh no…" Knobb said in complete terror.
"Wh… What's the matter?" Monica asked, expecting the worse.
"This time… It's going to be erased as well!"
"WHAT?" Max suddenly answered. "No… even us…"
"Snap out of it, Max!" Monica interrupted. "Osmond, what can we do?"
"I was actually ready for this, but I didn't think it would happen… What's the biggest place everyone in town can fit in?"
"The train station… Why?"
"That's going to have to be good enough," Osmond replied, halfway panicking as he took out the keys to Ixion and pointed at the door. "We have 23 minutes to get everyone onto the Ixion and inside the station! Let's move!"
Running around on Osmond's lightshow of a train, Max and Monica were able to round up everyone in town onto the Ixion. As they finally headed to the vicinity of Palm Brink's Train Station, Monica looks to the scenery to the back of the train and gasps.
The scenery behind them was getting disintegrated piece by piece, disappearing into the darkness. The Ixion boosted to full power as Max watched the Sun, the horizon, the Zelmite Mines, his house, and everything else, disappear into the deepest depths of nothingness like a blackhole sucking everything they had ever cared for.
Ixion stopped abruptly in front of the station's gate, opening the hatch to let everyone out and inside the station. After making sure no one was left inside, Knobb and Max ran towards the direction of the gate.
But suddenly, Max remembered something terribly important. He looked back to the missing horizon, and said, "Oh no! Dad! He's still in Heim Rada!"
"It's too late, Max! Let's go! We're the only hope now!" Knobb insisted to him, pulling him to the gates.
"I can't! Dad! DAAAD!"
With a hard push, Knobb trips him to the gates where Osmond and Monica catch him. But it was too late for him, as the dark infinity swallowed him and the Ixion… before Osmond had to close the gates to prevent it from happening to them. As it closed, Osmond activated a device that powered up a field to prevent them the area of the train station from being destroyed as well.
Beyond the station's gate, as it closed, Max could hear the invisible beast's laughter, mocking him. The time destroyer had won.
"This field should keep us from the time deletion that's happened in this time. So technically, right now, we're floating in the darkness of nonexistence."
"Yeah," Donny replied with a frightened gulp. "But how do we get out?"
Monica was too busy worrying about Max to listen to them. She walked closer and closer from behind him, and finally touching his shoulder, feeling him shake all over. "…Max?"
Max tried to look beyond the closed station gates. There, he could see the enemy in his mind. He wasn't shaking from sadness. It was anger. His fist tightens, and he turns around, trying not to look back. 'I don't care how long it takes, or how much I'm willing to do… I will find that thing… and I will deal with him…'
To be continued…---------------------
PREVIEW: With no way to leave the field since Ixion was destroyed, it was time to modify the Blackstone Ragna once again. But where can they possibly go to find clues to what they were up against? Answer – nowhere.
Next chapter onTHE LAST OF TIME: "Into The Nothing!"
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The Several:Well, everything'sgone now. Monica and Maxas well as everyone in town has nowhere else to go. What's gonna happen now?Well, more coming up soon! Please review!
And if you noticed, I used Sigma Breaker as his weapon instead of Grade Zero. This is because I don't really like Grade Zero's design, and Sigma Breaker looked cooler to me. If you read the Grade Zero's description, what does it mean? And Monica's Lamb Sword as well. I heard from somewhere that the Lamb Sword, if not fighting, says that it wants to quench its thurst. And that after beating some enemies, it says something else. Is this true?