Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.
Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-11-25. This is the third of five chapters posted today.
Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops, Chapter Eighteen, part 3 of 5 - Mega Man: Inside Out
18.13 (Crisis): [Inside Out] / [Mega Man] / [Mythos Hackers]
Mega Man: Inside Out - Riley Machine
"–His rocket makes you yell 'Hooray'! Bing Bong, Bing Bong–"
Roll weaved her way around every obstacle in her and Rock's path with expert ease, while Rock kept on singing the childish song that appeared to fuel the mysterious energy the broom had been infused with and permitted it flight.
It left him little concentration to contribute to the conversation taking place in his systems.
'Joy, this isn't a little thing,' Disgust insisted, wishing that the mental communications Rock and Roll had deliberately allowed them permitted visual contact as well. 'Sadness says you didn't just call yourself a bad emotion, you actually believed it!'
'She really did, it was heartbreaking.'
'Guys! I'm fine! Really!' Joy insisted. 'I've learned my lesson and I'm better for it! I know every emotion has a role to play, and I'm never going to try and repress any of you from doing your job again! Honest!'
'Joy, that's not what we're talking ab–' Fear tried to cut in.
'And besides,' Joy talked over him, 'we need to focus on saving Riley from this 'Slenderman' thing, so why don't we talk about tha–'
'Cut the crap, Joy,' Anger interrupted firmly. 'Look, I'm as glad as anyone that you're not going psycho on us, but I'm not sure I like this direction either. If we're going to save Riley, we need everyone at their best, especially you.'
'Yeah, righ–' Joy tried to wave the concern off, only for Anger to interrupt her again.
'I don't know if you've noticed Joy, but without you, we're a mess!'
'Look, the thing in baseline was totally unders–'
'I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE DAMN BASELINE! DID YOU SEE WHAT WE WERE LIKE WHEN WE GOT SEPARATED TODAY?! AFTER A FEW MINUTES RILEY DIDN'T NEED THAT 'OVERRIDE' THING FOR ME TO GO ON A RAMPAGE ACROSS THE CITY! I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF!'
'It's true!' Fear added. 'I thought I could figure out a way to stop this mess, but all I managed was to make people run away from it, and I'm not really sure that helped!'
'I kind of stopped caring pretty early,' Disgust added. 'Like none of it really mattered.'
'I gave up,' Sadness sighed. 'Because you weren't there to stop me. Like last time.'
'Sadness, look, that wasn't–'
'You wouldn't let me give up. Because that's what you do, Joy. You don't give up. You don't let us give up, and you don't let Riley give up. She needs that. Now more than ever.'
'Besides, you're not just one of Riley's emotions, you're her nature,' Fear told her.
'Huh?'
'Seriously,' Disgust snorted, 'read the mind manuals sometime. First emotion formed is the natural leader, so suck it up and start leading.' (31)
'What if the first emotion is really bad at leading?' Joy asked.
'Nothing good,' Sadness answered. 'Sorry, that wasn't helping, was it?'
The thing in her head needed to go. She was very certain of that. Mostly certain of that.
It wasn't that she was afraid of it, or angry at it, or disgusted by it. The thought of it staying didn't make her sad, nor did the thought of it leaving make her happy.
Because she couldn't feel anything at all. Because her emotions had left her all alone. Without any guidance as to how to react to the thing's presence in her head. Without any guidance as to what to do about the bad things it was pressing her to do. At least, she was sure they were bad things. Possibly. Maybe. What reference did she even have to judge anymore?
They were never coming back. Why would they with their newfound freedom? Free to indulge in their hysterical mania, unleash their untempered rage, wallow in the pits of despair, flee in abject terror, and judge with unhindered contempt. That was what they were made to do after all.
It wouldn't subject her to that. It would guide her and protect her from the uncaring dredges of the multiverse. Show her how to protect herself. Spread the gloriousness that she would be a part of to others. All she had to do was stop fighting the inevitable. Stop resisting her natural urges. Invite him to stay and fill the void left in her mind.
And it would ensure she was never alone.
"Shut... up..."
No.
"–Who's the best in every way, and wants to sing this song to say: Bing Bong, Bing Bong!"
Roll sighed in relief as she finally set her broom down in front of the gate leading to... whatever new threat was behind it. The song may have worked, and the individual it was about certainly praiseworthy, but... well... it was exceedingly juvenile, and short to the point that continuous repetitions had grated on her auditory processors.
Maker, but she was going to have that song stuck in her head now...
The gate ratcheted up and Roll took point in front of her brother, ready to meet whatever threat was inside head-on.
"We're here..." Rock breathed in surprise as they both looked around the lab room that this entire mess had started in. It was larger, thanks to whatever was expanding the space inside the lab, but is was recognizable. The original download area still had an unused generic male robot frame in it, there was a screen which showed a darkened view that looked to be Riley's Headquarters (seemingly empty) based on descriptions given to them both, and there at the far end, still hooked up to the improved Mind Machine, sat Riley herself. Right next to the control console that they'd set up, still functioning and looking largely untouched.
Rock and Roll nodded to each other and dashed towards Riley's location, Roll taking a rear flank position and scanning the room for threats while Rock focused on getting to Riley.
Which might have been why neither of them noticed the forcefield generators added to the floor until it activated right between them and knocked Roll on her butt when she crashed into it.
That had been rather easy to accomplish. He had thought separating them would be harder.
"Slenderman!" Rock growled as he searched for the source of the mental intrusion. He found no trace of the memetic entity. "Roll, are you alright?"
"I'm fine! Don't worry about me! Just get Riley's emotions back to her!"
Yes, he should really do that quickly. There was no telling what kind of damage had been done to the girl already. As for his sister, she would have her hands full.
"Damnit..." Rock swore as he realized that line of thought hadn't quite been his. Weighing his options, he quickly decided that he didn't have much of a choice and ran for the console.
After all, what would this little invasion be without a Riley Machine?
Roll heard a whirring of machinery behind her and turned just in time to dive away from a barrage of hockey pucks, tucking and rolling into a battle-ready crouch before taking a good look at... at the unholy love child of a Zamboni and a tank.
"Double that damnit," she cursed as crossbow turrets mounted on the sides of the thing started firing hockey sticks at her. She dove and tumbled out of the way and wished that her broom had a bit more oomph to it.
'Who's your friend who lik–' Roll shook her head hard. She didn't need that song stuck in her head right now! Even if it interacted with that strange magic powder and gave her broom flight, it–
Roll blinked as a memory from her time in Hogwarts crossed her mind. A conversation she'd had with Harry about the importance of incantations and wand movements. According to him, most Loops they weren't as critical as most people thought. Sure, they helped channel, focus, and shape spells, but the most important thing to magic was intent.
Roll gripped her broom rightly as she stared down the Zamboni from heck, determined to give her brother all the time he needed to get Riley's emotions to her. She thought about the mind-born friend of Riley's who'd sacrificed himself so they could get this far. The one who'd obliviously enchanted her broom in the first place. The one whose song was already stuck in her head. Maybe... just maybe if she changed the song a bit... she could use the enchantment to fight instead of fly.
It just needed to be a song with the right intent.
"Who's the friend who saves the day?"
Roll grinned as the bristles of the broom lit up with rainbow light, forming a shimmering spearhead of pure magical energy.
"Bing-Bong Bing-Bong!"
Dr. Light fiddled with the contents of his pocket as covertly as he could while his and the Andersens' captors ferried them through 'Castle Riley'. He did have to grudgingly marvel at how fast and effectively the Slenderman, vile being that he was, had put the very experiments Dr. Light had been working on, combined with what seemed to be the contents of Riley's imagination, to use constructing this place. Experiments that he'd only been working on because he'd believed that without Dr. Wily in the Loop there was little chance of them being subverted to cause harm.
He sighed and continued his work as the train chugged on through a room that housed a giant robotic clown, damaged beyond operation, and a smashed Devil Core (on loan from Rock's subspace pocket) amidst a mass of what looked like pink cotton candy.
"That looks like the imaginary friend Riley drew in those old books of hers..." Mrs. Andersen gasped at the sight.
"Didn't you say there was a clown that scared her at her cousin's birthday party?" Mr. Andersen asked, sounding in shock. Dr. Light could hardly blame either of them. The whole thing was rather shocking.
"Yes, she cried for almost half an hour..."
"Who sends the bad guys far away? Bing Bong, Bing Bong!"
Roll had to grin as the magical spearhead tore through the machine's armaments and scored its armor with much more ease than just her broom would have managed.
"The bravest one in every way, and so we shout his name today! Bing Bong, Bing Bong!"
She jumped onto the hood in a handstand when one of the surviving puck-shooters tracked her position and was about to launch herself over the whole machine when a weakness that she was very much unused to war machines having finally registered.
Namely that the driver's seat was empty.
Roll checked her momentum so she dropped into the seat rather than clearing the whole machine. Only at the last moment did it occur to her that it might be a trap... but nothing happened.
Not only did nothing happen, Roll spotted an ignition behind the steering wheel complete with keys in it. Acting fast, she reached out and turned the keys to the off position, causing the whole machine to sputter and shut down. She waited for a moment to confirm that it was indeed off before removing the keys and breathing a sigh of relief.
"TripleDent Gum... will make you smile..."
"What in the world?" Roll puzzled as she heard the muffled sound coming from in front of her.
"TripleDe–"
"–AAAHH!" Roll screamed as a huge black three-jawed worm erupted from the steering wheel like a deploying airbag and went straight for her face.
'Okay, memetic lifeform, eldritch abomination, actually an Admin-level douchebag stuck in an avatar, and doing who-knows-what to Riley's head,' Anger repeated back in annoyance. 'Anything else we need to know?'
'Besides hurry?' Joy added.
"Yeah," Rock continued working on the console, configuring the Mind Machine for downloading to Riley's mind direct from the IC chips rather than being hooked up to their robot bodies as previously intended. "His avatar, like what he probably was originally, is a being of pure thought."
'Uh, yeah,' Disgust spat, 'what does tha–'
"Just like you all are."
'–oh... Oh!'
'So...?' Fear wondered.
'...We can hurt him,' Anger chuckled eagerly.
"Just remember that goes both ways," Rock reminded as he finalized the settings and double-checked them. There was zero room for error on this.
Roll was immensely glad for her mechanical reflexes. It was the only reason she wasn't being face-hugged by a giant singing black worm with three jaws and teeth. She'd caught it with her broom just in time and smashed it against the dashboard where the worm-thing had gone splat and stuck like a wad of gum. She'd just barely managed to pull her broom away, thankfully without black worm goo on it, only to watch the worm start to reform. She'd exited the vehicle rather fast at that point.
'Okay, let's see how you like a bit of magic song power!' Roll set her face in determination. "Who's the friend who saves the day?"
The broom lit up like before and she prepared to meet the little beast when it came for her. It had finished reforming and was opening its three jaws even now.
"Bi–"
"–nt Gum... it lasts a while..."
Roll stared as the prismatic song power fizzled out completely.
"That's not good..."
"TripleDent Gum... will help you–"
She barely recovered from her distraction enough to get her arm between her face and the lunging worm-thing, allowing its jaws to latch onto her arm firmly rather than her face.
'–mister... To punch bad breath right in the kisser...'
Had she been capable, Roll would have paled as the worm's song began sounding directly in her head, accompanied by a looming image of Slenderman himself. An image that conveyed a sense of total futility and urged her to simply give up and let him in.
"LIKE HECK!" she yelled, slamming the bitten arm into the side of the Riley Machine. The worm splatted again, but its triple jaws and related teeth refused to let go of Roll's arm. Running through her options, Roll decided to start shooting it with the emotion weapons and hoping for the best, starting with what little she had left of the Zen Buster and praying from there.
'TripleDent GuuuUU–'
The shot caused the splatted goo-worm to writhe in response and let go of Roll's arm.
"–uummmMMMmm..."
Switching, Roll fired again before the worm could reform and lunge at her again.
"TripleDeeEEeeNNnt–"
Frantic Fright didn't have much more effect than the Zen Buster and Roll had to move her head to the side as it ricocheted back at her.
"–Gum... wiiiIIIiiLLll–"
Angry Flame wasn't much better.
"–make you smmmMMmIIii–"
Nor was Blooming Disgust.
"–le... TrippPpPLLlle D-D-D-DeeeEEnnnTT G-G-GuuummMmM..."
Sad Raincloud had promise, but it wasn't really slowing the thing down as it finished reforming and began a lunge.
"–it lAAaaAAasSSssTTtssSSs AAAAAAAAAAA W-w-W-hhHHiiILLLeee..."
Joyous Sunburst seemed to hit paydirt as a yellow glow overtook the black for a bit before being pushed back and seeming to make the worm-thing angrier. Better than the others, but not good enough.
'Okay, new strategy,' Roll thought as she switched to something from her housekeeping toolkit. Her arm finished reforming as the worm-thing lunged, and she pointed the device straight down its throat and fired even as it latched onto the end of her arm and its insidious song and the accompanying insidious image returned, eating away at her mind and resolve.
'TripleDent Gum... will h~elp yo~u mis~ter...'
The tool she'd selected was basically a freezer spray. Not very powerful, being only as cold as the average commercial freezer, but good for cooling off warm drinks.
'T~o p~un~ch b~a~d... br...ea...th... r...ig...ht...'
And cleaning off gum stuck to desks those times she'd gone to school.
'i...n... t...h...e... k...i...s...s...e...r...'
The writhing of the worm-thing slowed down and cracks began to form in its body from its own struggled as Roll kept pumping cold air into its core, more and more until the thing stopped moving at all, at which point she smashed it against the Riley Machine and watched in satisfaction as the pieces did nothing but lie there.
Her satisfaction was cut short as the gate to the room ratcheted up and an odd-looking train chugged in.
Roll turned to look and felt her circuits run cold as she saw her father and Riley's parents being held at gunpoint by one of those Biker Joe/imaginary boyfriend robots from before, along with a pair of zombie robots. Mostly, the gun was pointed at her dad, but Roll didn't believe for a second that it couldn't be turned on the Andersens.
Sparing a glance, Roll spotted her brother slotting the emotions' IC chips into the console and willed him to hurry up.
"You will both stop everything right now and step away from the lovely Riley and all computers or else suffer the consequences!" the boyfriend-bot declared loudly as the train ground to a halt.
Roll saw Rock hesitate for a moment, and then press the button to start the download.
"I'm sorry, what was that again?" Rock turned around, feigning confusion and ignorance rather well in Roll's opinion.
"I said you are to step away from that console before you bring harm to my love Riley!" the boyfriend-bot called again as he directed the three adults off the train. Roll didn't miss the intense scowl on Mr. Andersen's face at his declaration.
"Sure thing," Rock held his hands up in a gesture of surrender and did as asked. Roll did the same from where she stood. They'd done their part. Now it was up to the emotions.
Joy looked around Headquarters the moment she manifested and felt her heart sink.
The place was a wreck. It was darkened everywhere, with colors faded so far that in the shadows, Joy couldn't tell what they were even supposed to be. Littered all across the floor, rather than in the short-term wall storage where they were supposed to be, were dozens of blackened memory orbs. A look behind her showed the other emotions looking just as stunned as she was and a control panel that was nearly black from inoperability. In place of the simple viewscreen camera the Lights had helped them to set up via relayed instructions for a video feed that never quite got finished, there was an entire array of cameras straight from Dream Studios.
"Is... Is he going to film us?" Fear wondered, looking at the camera setup.
He'd been expecting them.
Joy and the others looked around, hoping to find where Slenderman was hiding, but saw nothing. Only the soft light of the core memories, safe and untouched in their holder. The pre-awake core memories on a small bottom tier, overshadowed by the larger tier above holding the baseline and looping core memories, with a brilliant near-white prismatic glow from the center of the top tier.
"He... hasn't touched the core memories?" Sadness wondered.
"Then... we made it in time!" Joy felt relieved.
Yes, they were right on time.
"You..." the very tired and weary monotone of Riley sounded throughout Headquarters, even as a thin shadow peeled itself away from the edge of the window, standing tall, straight, and sinister in the strongest source of light in Headquarters as it strode over to the core memory holder.
"You... came back..."
And paradoxically, far too late.
*DONG*
The sound was so thoroughly unexpected, and the response to it so ingrained, that the five emotions couldn't help but turn to look at the memory dispenser as a pitch black memory orb radiating pure shadow dropped in.
"No..." Fear stared in horror as the blackened core memory orb trundled its way down towards the core memory holder, which was even now shifting to accommodate the new addition.
The center portion holding the nearly-clear prismatic orb for Unity Island rose up to reveal a new housing spot directly underneath it.
"S...Someone... stop i–" Joy moved forwards on protective instinct, only for a sharp impact to the chest to bring her to a halt.
Slenderman casually knelt down to pick up the orb personally while holding his other arm out towards Joy, a tendril like darkest shadow extending from it. As he held the orb, shadows seemed to flow from his arm and into the orb, darkening it even further if at all possible.
"Joy...?" Disgust turned to look at the normally brilliant emotion, her glow was so much a part of her that the rest rarely gave it any thought. She no longer had it.
Joy herself was transfixed on Slenderman's actions as he thrust the black core memory into place.
He had won.
"Oh god... Joy..." Fear trembled.
As did Headquarters. From the black core memory sprouted dozens of shadowy tendrils that wrapped around the core memory holder, and the core memories themselves, scorching the shining core memories black and dull where they touched, save for the brilliantly clear prismatic one at the pinnacle, but even that dulled from the tendrils' touch. What light was left to the core memories pulsed weakly as outside the far window, a tidal wave of black erupted from below, carrying pieces of Riley's Islands of Personality with them, cutting all the lines of power save the one for Unity Island directly below. As they watched, the wave of black formed into a truly massive giant replica of the impossibly thin Slenderman, the remains of the Islands of Personality, already gray and faded, sticking to it like some cruel and macabre parody. Family Island, the most intact of them all, lay in the giant replica's outstretched hand, gripped so tightly it cracked.
Joy's chest hurt at the sight and she raised a hand to it, only to find an obstruction. Weakly, she looked down to see the tendril of blackness stuck straight through her, her normally yellow skin turning gray and dull around the wound.
The tendril retracted suddenly and Joy fell to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut.
"JOY! NNNOOOOOOOOO!"
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"
A rumble of thunder, a burst of flames, and soundless laughter echoed through Headquarters as Joy lay there unmoving. (32)
18.14 (Crisis): [Inside Out] / [Mega Man] / [Mythos Hackers]
Mega Man: Inside Out - Fear... Leads to Anger... Leads to Hate Disgust... Leads to Suffering Sadness... Leads to...?!
*Mr. Andersen's Headquarters*
"What just...?"
*Mrs. Andersen's Headquarters*
"Did that thing... kill Riley's Joy...?"
*The Real World*
The Andersens could only stare in horror at the sight projected above, a raincloud forming in Riley's headquarters while a squat humanoid mass of flames charged the being known as Slenderman.
"Oww! I... Aaaah!"
And then Riley started writhing in pain from her seat.
"Riley, my love?" the biker robot started at the sound. "What is wr–*BZZAP*
Dr. Light had needed no further opening to take the jury-rigged taser out of his coat pocket and zap the robot, relieving the machine of his gun as he fell and turning on the zombie-robots escorting him and the Andersens.
*BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!*
The zombie-bots weren't getting up anytime soon.
"Quickly, we need to get–"
"–Down!" Roll yelled, diving in front of them, her hands having been traded out for mirrors, which reflected lasers fired from the wall behind Riley. "Behind the train! Move!"
"Hold on!" Rock called. "I think I can–gah!"
A battered copy of the Mind Reader fluttered a bit, the only two words on the front page reading 'JOY'S DEAD?!' as the heatwaves from Anger's flames burst against the Slenderman and his shadowy tendrils inside the rain of pure sadness.
The rain was a brilliant blue, and as thick and intense as Sadness's weeping over the loss of Joy, her best friend outside Riley. Each drop that struck the Slenderman burned his dark form blue at the point of impact before being swallowed up by his natural darkness.
"JOOOYYY! WHHYYYYYY-HYYY-HYYY-HYYYYYYY?!"
Anger for his part had never been in such a fury. Even when separated from the rest of the emotions with nothing to temper or control him, he hadn't been this mad. All thoughts of the mission had fled in the fire of his fury, his only goal being that the eldritch beanpole had to die. His body burned as he charged the Slenderman again and again, bolts of flames from his hands burning away the tendrils sent at him, leaving the scorched edges red for a moment as he charged past, intent on destroying the one who had caused so much pain and suffering.
And each time, his charge was ultimately met with a spinning kick or a backhand that sent him flying even as the flames that engulfed him scorched the limb red for a moment. But he got back up each time, the injuries only serving to stoke his rage.
"RRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Fear and Disgust had stared as Sadness and Anger lost all semblance of control and went berserk, manifesting a massive raincloud right in headquarters in the case of Sadness and performing a full-body ignition for Anger. They'd exchanged glances and proceeded to jointly drag the unmoving Joy behind the inoperable console.
At least, inoperable to them. Right after Sadness and Anger had lost it, Slenderman had held a single hand out towards the blackened console and the various buttons and levers had started moving on their own, the sickly sparking idea bulb pulsing with each phantom-driven movement.
"Oh, this is bad, very bad!" Fear was practically hyperventilating.
"Get ahold of yourself, Fe–"
"Do you know how to revive an emotion that's been impaled?! Because I don't! We haven't even been back here for ten seconds and we've lost Joy!"
"And if you don't get a hold of yourself, we might lose Anger or Sadness!" Disgust snapped. "Then what?!"
"I don't know!" Fear moaned, huffing rapidly. "You saw what happened! One shot! One shot!"
"Yeah, well you can sit here with your pity party and let that thing do whatever to Riley," Disgust sneered at him. "Me, I'm going to do something about it."
And with that, Disgust turned to dash out into the chaos of Headquarters, flashes of green flower shapes shining with each step she took.
"Hey, wait!" Fear called after her. "This is a bad idea!"
What could they do against the one who had felled their leader? Nothing. It was better to hide. To cower in fright. To let the abject terror fuel the new ruler of–
"Wait, what?" Fear started as he realized the direction those thoughts had taken. "Am I really making him stronger hiding back here?"
He-he-he-he-he...
Fear gulped loudly. Going out there would be very dangerous to himself. Staying here could be dangerous to everyone else.
"Oh..." he turned to look at the prone Joy. "What do I do?!"
"Ri..." the barest whisper sounded from Joy's still form. "...ley..."
Fear blinked owlishly for several moments, before taking a deep breath and steadying himself to a mere shiver rather than full-blown tremors. "Right... stupid question..."
Appropriate for a fool about to perish.
"I am so going to regret this!" Fear yelled as he dashed out into the chaotic storm right in headquarters.
The rain fell thick with Sadness's sobs, leaving pinprick flashes of blue on the black tendrils lashing about. Flashes of flame lit Headquarters as Anger blasted a berserker rage through the storm, carving the darkness and leaving the burned edges read. Wide green flashes lit the ground with Disgust's steps and turned several shadowy tendrils green and began to dissolve them. In the center, the Slenderman ducked and wove with movements physically impossible even for the emotions, batting both Anger and Disgust away whenever they got too close, seemingly uncaring for the assault upon him.
It was into this that Fear dashed, screaming, flailing his arms about wildly and hoping to do something. He was surprised when bolts of purplish air were thrown from his hands and bounced their way through the chaos, leaving purple marks whenever they hit Slenderman's shadowy tendrils, breaking them at the point of impact. Apparently their time as robots had left something of an imprint or–
One of the flailing tendrils of shadow slammed into Fear, tossing him head over heels to crash into the core memory holder. The core memories rattled, but the tendrils covering the holder, and corrupting the core memories, held them in place. His gaze was drawn to the black core memory, radiating shadows and the seeming source of the choking tendrils that were determined to suck the life out of Riley's very personality, all the things that made her her.
He was overcome by an extremely strong certainty that the core memory wanted him. Wanted him to reach out so it could draw Fear into it an–
Something wrapped around his leg, pulling Fear away before he could touch the core memory–when had he even started reaching for it anyway?– and flung him to the opposite side of the room to crash among one of the larger piles of discarded blackened memories.
"Ow..." Fear moaned, reaching out to brace himself into a sitting position and felt a mild fizzing sensation in his hand as he did. He turned and saw that he'd grabbed one of the blackened memories, except that it was no longer black.
As he watched, a scene of Riley watching news footage of their earlier rampage played amidst a purple hue as the memory orb finished its conversion from a blank perspective to a fearful one.
'But... only Sadness can do something like this, right?' he wondered, looking over the memory. It–
It mattered not if he fought or fled. Either action would feed the Slenderman's strength.
Fear looked up in time to see Anger being thrown into Disgust by their mutual opponent and knew what he had to do. Eyes on the prize, he took off running. And screaming.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA–"
Yes, little agent of terror. Serve your master with your action–
"–Sorry,busywithsomethingelserightnow," Fear gibbered as he duck, wove, and slid through the rain and the chaotic mass of shadowy tendrils lashing about... and right past a suddenly confused Slenderman, "leaveamessageatthesoundofthescreamandwe'llgetbacktoyouathalfpastnever–AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
He jumped like a panic-guided missile straight for the black core memor–"Ooof!"
And was knocked off-course at the last moment.
What was he thinking, anyway? Such a thing would devour his essence and leave nothing lef–
A blazing, fiery Anger slammed bodily into the Slenderman, knocking him off-balance with a flash of red, followed by a flash of green as Disgust performed a rather sloppy drop-kick.
"AAAAA-HUAAAHH-HAAA-HAAAAAAAAAA!" Sadness continued to wail, the rain intensifying in a fresh wave as she did.
"Whatever you're gonna do, do it already!" Anger yelled at him as the impossibly thin abomination recovered, his shadows burning away the color he'd been afflicted with as he retaliated.
Fear didn't even waste time nodding, he just sprang forwards, over a tendril, under another, twisting around a third, throwing bolts of purplish air at the tendrils holding his target in place, and diving in the most desperate hand-outstretched manner he was capable of. He hit the black core memory like a bullet, felt a burning sensation in his hand as he knocked it loose, and flew straight through its holder in a way only his naturally rail-thin form could manage.
He hit the ground in an uncontrolled roll, clutching desperately to the dark core memory as he went, refusing to relax his hold for any reason. When he finally came to a stop, he risked a look at the core memory and was rewarded with a view through the familiar brightly-shining purple color and heard Riley's voice from within it.
"You... came back..."
'I was afraid you wouldn't.'
Except... his purple hadn't taken away all of the shadow-radiating blackness. Only a portion of it. He frantically moved his hands over the memory, trying to fix it, and it seemed to work a bit, but for every part that turned purple past a certain point, the blackness reclaimed an equal portion.
He... he wasn't enough...
Fear looked up, to see Anger blasted across the room once again–how many times had it happened now?–and realized: He wasn't enough by himself.
"Anger! Go long!" Fear yelled and threw the core memory at his fellow emotion with all his might before turning and charging at the most terrifying thing he'd ever come across.
'Thisisabadidea,thisisabadidea,thisisabadidea,thisisabadidea,THISISABADIDEA–' he chanted to himself as he wove through the shadowy tendrils, flung bursts of bouncing purple air to clear the way, rushed past Disgust, and with all the desperation of a cornered animal, kicked Slenderman in the face.
The impact cracked the abomination's head back so hard that his spine seemed to fold in half at the waist in precisely the opposite direction human anatomy typically allowed.
'–Did I actually just DO tha–'
He was so shocked that he never saw the retaliatory blow that blasted him into the wall.
Rock grunted, clutching where he'd been hit as he ran to the back of the room. He could hear Roll doing her best to defend their dad and the Andersens from the sudden attack. He could hear the cries of Riley as she convulsed in pain. He could also hear the sounds of the battle taking place in the girl's mind.
He ignored it and focused on the control panel he'd spotted on the wall. The best thing he could do now was to get to that thing and try to cut off Riley's access, and by extension Slenderman's, to the lab's systems.
Behind him, he heard the sound of damaged machinery rumbling to life under protest, and his sister's response to it.
"Oh come on! I turned that off!"
Anger caught the memory orb out of reflex before he even knew what it really was. By the time it registered, a glowing red was eating away at the blackness to join the purple already there. He felt his fury blank out in astonishment as he watched the scene through his own color, viewed both outside and inside Riley's head.
"You... came back..."
'You left in the first place.'
"It..." Anger choked on the words. "It was a bad idea... We never should have tried it... We–"
–will all fall to the inevitable.
Anger felt his temper flare up as he turned to look at the Slenderman, fending off both Fear and Disgust. He watched the thing grab Disgust by the throat with one of its shadowy tendrils and throw her at him.
He was already moving, rearing back to throw the orb at Disgust. It slammed straight into her stomach, causing her to grasp it by reflex as Anger vaulted over, igniting as he rejoined the fray.
Roll's broom, and a borrowed hockey stick, spun like a blur as she deflected hockey pucks and sticks fired from the already damaged Riley Machine, preventing them from possibly harming the adults behind her while they sought cover behind the train.
Sparing a glance back, she noted that they were out of the firing line and decided to go on the offensive. As she leaped high into the air, something on the back of the machine opened up and she beheld a rather large impact explosive primed to fire in a high arc.
"Oh, no you don't!" Roll called out, hefting her borrowed hockey stick like it was a spear. This was going to hurt, but better her than the others.
She threw the spear with stick with all her might like a javelin, striking the impact-triggered explosive squarely and detonating it before it could even clear the machine.
*KA-BOOM!*
"Roll!"
"You... came back..."
'Do you even know what happened while you were gone?'
Disgust tuned out the sobs of Sadness and the sounds of battle as she watched the scene in the memory play through her own shining green light and felt lower than dirt. The orb was now less than half the shadow-emanating blackness it had originally been, with shining purple, red, and now green holding back the emotional void it had once been.
"Don't worry," she scowled towards the source of all the pain Riley had been forced to endure and then glanced over to the side where Sadness sat, still weeping up a very literal storm, "we'll fix this."
Dashing towards the weeping emotion, Disgust shook her by the shoulder.
"JOOOOYYY...! SHE'S GOO-OOO-OO-OOONNEE!"
"Sadness, snap out of it!" Disgust shook harder.
"What's the use?!" Sadness wailed. "We lost Joy! Without Joy, we can't save Rile-ee-ee-eeyy!"
"I'd apologize, but you seriously need this," Disgust huffed before slapping Sadness sharply across the face.
"Wh-what was that for...?"
"That was because Riley needs you to pull yourself together so we can pull her together!" Disgust snapped, before thrusting the partially-converted core memory into Sadness's hands. "Here, n–"
Disgust was suddenly yanked backwards away from Sadness.
Dr. Light ran to where his daughter had been thrown by the explosion, worry in his face. He nearly forgot the defensive lasers the room had been firing until a sharp cry from the back of the room sounded out, followed by loudly sparking electronics, the lights flickering, and the defensive lasers powering down.
"Rock!"
Sadness hadn't quite noticed Disgust being pulled away. She was too engrossed in the sight of her shining blue reaching out from her hands to wash away the foul emotionally empty blackness on the core memory.
"You... came back..."
'I was so alone...'
What... what had she been doing? Crying to herself while Riley needed her help? Again?
Face firming up, Sadness checked over the core memory, the blue glow following her hands as it and the other colors shoved each other in a complex swirling pattern. It looked... It looked like each color took up roughly one-fifth of the orb. Which meant...
Which meant they still needed Joy...
Sadness had just resolved to run the orb towards the downed Joy when it was slapped out of her hands and something wrapped around her neck, choking her as she was raised into the air. Looking out, she saw that it was a tendril of shadow, connected at the other end to the Slenderman. With three more, each holding a different emotion up by the neck.
Mr. and Mrs. Andersen, along with their emotions, looked at the display in horror as the thing possessing their daughter held her remaining four emotions up by their necks and seemed to be choking the very color out of them.
It was hopeless. It had always been hopeless.
But they'd had to make it difficult. Do things the hard way and fight against the inevitable. And they'd paid the price.
They should have known. Laughter dies, tears run dry, fury burns out, distaste withers, and panic exhausts. In the end, only the emptiness is left. The emptiness and the madness.
Joy was having a lot of trouble thinking. Her mind kept bouncing between how much her chest hurt, and how much Riley was in trouble.
Part of her really wanted to get up and help, but she just wasn't feeling it. It was like all of her get up and go got up and went. And she'd had a lot of get up and go. Enough that she really should have noticed it leaving like that.
Like the weird swirly, glowy memory orb in front of her. When had that gotten there? Joy looked on as the scene was colored purple, then red, then green, then blue, and finally black.
"You... came back..."
'Of course we came back,' Joy thought in puzzlement. Each of the emotional inflections sounded like they were missing something, but the last was missing everything. 'It doesn't matter why we leave or how far we go, we'll always come back to you, Riley.'
It just... didn't make sense. Where was the girl, happy or otherwise, who couldn't be kept down? Who never stopped fighting and never stopped trying? Where was her 'never-say-die' attitude?
After all, Fear...
Fear would just get her to hide somewhere until it was over.
Okay, Anger...
No, Anger would rage and break things over the indignity of it all.
Maybe Disgust...
Pfft... Disgust would throw up her hands and say she was through with everything.
Well, then definitely Sadness...
Except Sadness had already proven willing to go cry in a corner when things got too tough.
Puzzled, Joy struggled to move her hand, reaching out to the shadowy black part of the memory orb on an instinct she couldn't define.
After what seemed like an eternity, her hand made contact and Joy felt a sharp drain on what little strength she had left as a paltry yellow glow formed in the middle of the remaining blackness.
"You... came back..."
'Finally... we're together again.'
Oh... That was it... It was her... Joy... She was the reason for Riley's ability to keep going when things got tough. She'd... She'd forgotten that somewhere along the way. Somewhere between making sure she didn't try to stop another emotion from doing their job and the stress of the Loops, Joy had forgotten her own purpose in guiding Riley.
Joy felt a laugh from somewhere within, bringing with it a familiar warmth that spread and chased away the weakness in her body like the dawn chases away the shadows.
"Ha..."
And as it did, the yellow glow on the memory orb around her hand grew, eating away at the blackness until there was none left, and Joy watched the five colors swirl around each other faster and faster...
"Hahahahaha!"
The four emotions watched Slenderman freeze in his taunting as the laugh echoed through headquarters and a bright glow shone from behind the possessed console. A glow that began to move.
"Is that...?" Disgust seemed to perk up and regain a bit of color from her nearly gray state first.
It couldn't be...
Slenderman turned around as a glowing yellow figure stepped out from behind the console, carrying a brightly shining memory orb so prismatic it seemed perfectly clear.
"JOY!" Sadness had never sounded so relieved to see anything.
He'd taken care of her!
"You certainly gave it a good shot," Joy smirked back at the memetic abomination, twirling the core memory on one of her fingers like it was a basketball. "But, come on! I'm Joy! It doesn't matter how hard you knock me down, I'll get right back up! The prospect of being erased forever couldn't keep me down. What makes you think you can?"
18.15 (Crisis): [Inside Out] / [Mega Man] / [Mythos Hackers]
Mega Man: Inside Out - Recovery
Dr. Light had half-dragged his children over near Riley and was assessing the damage done to them. Nothing unrepairable, but rather severe nevertheless. He got to work as the concerned Andersens joined him, alternating their gazes between their pained daughter and the display showing the inside of her mind.
"All right!" Anger pounded his fist to his palm. "We've got the whole gang now! Let's do th–"
"Nope!" Joy cut him off.
The other four emotions blinked in shock, and even the Slenderman seemed surprised.
"I've got Slendy here," Joy told them confidently, stepping out towards the eldritch personage, tossing the core memory to herself as she did. "You all have more important things to do. Fear, get control of the co–"
No less than four shadowy tendrils lashed out at Joy suddenly, and vanished in a flash of yellow light an instant later, the last couple of feet of each burned away, leaving the severed ends a yellow color. Joy held the core memory protectively, one palm held out to ward off the sudden attack.
"–nsole back," Joy continued, her gaze firm and set. "Ang–"
The Slenderman charged himself this time, slapping the shorter emotion's defending arm away and grabbing her by the throat with one hand and the core memory with the other.
The shadowed blackness from before burned at the brilliant prismatic memory–
"Joy! I'm–
"No! Ideas!"
–before Joy slammed two glowing feet into Slenderman's torso with a flash of light.
"Wha...?" Anger blinked, half stunned by the request, and half stunned by the fact that the Slenderman seemed to have been blown in half.
"Well..." Joy chuckled nervously as the brilliance of the core memory erased the blackness the Slenderman had reintroduced. "That was easy?"
Oh, is that what she thought?
Both halves of the Slenderman charged at her independent of each other, lashing out with thin limbs and shadowy tendrils, trying to claim the core memory back from her. One strike got lucky and slammed Joy into the wall hard enough that she lost her grip on the core memory. Before he could grab it though, Joy kicked it hard across Headquarters to where Sadness and Disgust stood. Sadness, being the closer one to where it was going, caught it.
"You two!" Joy called out, having dove onto Slenderman's top half while the two pieces rejoined and was holding her hands firmly over where the faceless entity's eyes should have been. "Get that memory back in place! Anger!"
"Do you remember what happened the last time I gave Riley an idea?! Never again! I'll help you fight! I can help you beat him!"
"We don't need him beaten!" Joy yelled back as the Slenderman threw her off and slammed her into the floor. "We need him out of Riley's head!"
Joy was then thrown into the ceiling with enough force to bounce her back towards the floor.
"Do you think any idea–" Joy called out before being slammed into the wall again, "–can do that if it's not angry?!"
Anger stared, hating to admit that Joy was right. Gritting his teeth, he made to charge at the idea bulb bins, only to watch as shadowy tendrils from Slenderman tore into the wall surrounding the bins and ripped it apart, scattering debris and idea bulbs all over Headquarters.
'Well... that's a sure sign Joy's on the right track...' Anger admitted to himself as he prepared to try and search every last scattered bulb to find one that might do the trick.
"Ow!" Fear yelped and grabbed his hand back from the sparking idea bulb stuck in the console. He'd never seen an idea go that bad... ever. "This... this is a bad idea... Ow! This is a really bad idea..."
He looked over the console, trying to figure out how to regain control. This was entirely different than when Sadness had done in baseline. Then, the console had just locked them all out. Now, all the various darkened levers and buttons were moving on their own, driving Riley to do who-knew-what?
Should he grab that lever? Or maybe that one? No! It wouldn't work! None of them would work!
'Okay, breathe...' he told himself. 'This is no time to panic...'
It was like a final piece of the puzzle had clicked into place, and Fear found his gaze drawn towards the panic button at his usual seat.
"Or maybe... it's the perfect time to panic!"
He dashed over, and tripped as something grabbed one of his legs and tried to pull him away. Fear didn't need to look to know it was one of Slenderman's shadowy tendrils. All he needed was to get to that button!
Fueled by a depth of desperation he didn't recall experiencing before, Fear gripped at the console with claw-like hands and began dragging himself inch-by-precious-inch towards Riley's salvation as he kicked at the thing trying to pull him away.
"You... won't... stop... me... from... keeping... Riley... safe!"
He slammed his hand down on the panic button with all his might, causing a wave of purple to flash out lightning-quick from the button and spread all over the console, stopping the possessed movement of levers and buttons, and also ejecting the idea with enough force that it shattered on the Headquarters ceiling.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Riley's eyes shot fully open and darted around her immediate vicinity. She saw her parents, a damaged Rock and Roll, and Dr. Light trying to repair them. She also felt a terrible, long overdue, and very built-up panic and began struggling with the straps holding her to the chair.
"No, Riley! Not yet!"
Riley halted her struggles as she heard the familiar voice and listened to it.
'Fear?' she thought back, feeling like her mind had been put through a blender. But she was feeling.
"I'm here, Riley. We're all here. Listen, Joy's got a plan, but you need to stay where you are right now."
Sadness and Disgust raced towards the core memory holder, Sadness holding the core memory in her hands like the most precious thing in the world while Disgust covered her by blasting those revolting black tendril things with flower-shaped bursts of green light from her feet.
They reached the core memory holder with little issue, and found a problem. The tendrils choking the life out of the device had closed up over the very slot they needed to place the core memory in.
"No..." Sadness sniffled. "It's... it's not fair... He can't..."
"Keep it together Sadness," Disgust snapped, fending off another attack from behind before kicking the blockage in a flash of green. And what a sloppy kick it was, much like the fight with Slenderman earlier. First chance they got, they were talking Riley into martial arts lessons. (33)
The green light dissolved away at the blockage of tendrils, but they began writhing and reorganizing themselves to prevent access.
"They're being so mean!" Sadness wailed, thrusting one of her arms out at the mass. There was a bolt of blue, a muffled rumble of thunder, and a cloud formed directly over the foul things, turning parts of them blue and making them writhe in apparent pain. Disgust took that invitation to kick them again and between the blue and the green glows, the blockage swiftly dissolved, allowing Sadness to push the core memory back into place.
There was a pulse of light from it that caused the remaining tendrils grasping at the core memory holder to writhe, and the core memories they were suppressing to flare back to full brilliance. Another pulse and the tendrils were blasted apart completely. The third pulse traveled down the powering connections for the Islands of Personality and there was a great cracking in the distance. Sadness and Disgust turned to watch as the giant statue of Slenderman began to crumble, and then shatter completely as the Islands of Personality were reformed in its place. In fact, they looked brighter than ever, with bridges leading to them even more elaborate than before.
"Did... Did Unity Island just get bigger?" Sadness wondered.
'Okay...' Riley felt a few tears of relief pour from her eyes as something in her head that had been broken was suddenly put right. She... she felt... like herself again...
Anger frantically searched through the scattered idea bulbs for something that could be used to kick the Slenderman out of Riley's head, but was so far finding nothing. Each failure he tossed aside before grabbing for another.
Make a volcano? No. *Toss*
Swim to Hawaii? With their idea of pizza? *Toss*
Drive dad's car? Not if they wanted to live to see sixteen. *Toss*
Go back to Mon– "Gah!" *Big toss*
Look up Pole Dancing on the internet because mom changed the subject way too fast? Yeah, right. (34) *Toss*
Get clarification on 'The Talk'? Ugh, that had been bad enough the first time! *Toss*
Bring emotions outside my head? Not lik–
Anger froze halfway through tossing the idea and took a second look. Yes, it was the same idea that had gotten them into this mess in the first place. And maybe...
Anger grinned and began running for the console.
Just maybe it could get them out of it as well.
"Joy!" he called out as he dashed for the console. "Get him under the tube!"
"Roger that!" Joy called back from where she was dueling the Slenderman before being knocked to the floor.
Anger ignored his desire to go pound the guy in favor of delivering the idea.
Joy, for her part, didn't let being flat on her back stop her. She pulled her legs back and kicked straight out to where, on any normal male, a very vulnerable part would be. A flash of yellow light sent Slenderman staggering, but little more. It was still enough for Joy to spring to her feet and launch a punch at the memetic abomination's lack of face, resulting in the brightest flash of yellow light yet.
A wordless curse echoed across Headquarters as the Slenderman stumbled back from the blow, before he was hit by another, and another, driven back by each until–
"Hey, Slendy!" Anger yelled from the console, before inserting the idea bulb. "GET OUT OF OUR HEAD!"
The Slenderman looked up at the extraction tube directly over him and lashed out with
his tendrils to hold himself in place as he was drawn upwards. Another lashed out to wrap around Joy and pull her towards him.
If he was going to be kicked out, she would come with him. Let them both spend their exile together while Riley learned what a life without happiness was lik–
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!" the yell heralded a kick, followed by a flash of green that dissolved both the tendril holding Joy and those holding the tube, allowing the Slenderman to be drawn up, and out before the tube shut off.
At the console, Anger grinned as he removed the idea bulb, and then kissed it. "Now that's a good idea!"
"Thanks Disgust," Joy smiled.
"Duh," Disgust rolled her eyes and smirked. "You needed my help. Now, let's get Riley back to normal. This place is a mess."
"Sounds good," Joy smiled back. "Okay everyone, listen up!"
Mr. and Mrs. Andersen sighed in relief when the Slenderman had been kicked out. Their daughter was safe again. That monster would never–
The sound of machinery caught their attention and the two looked over where the very last of the generic robot frames lay as it jerked and changed shape. The torso and limbs became unnaturally thin and stretched out as they scorched to the black of the void. The head became squashed, ovular, sheet-white, and completely devoid of facial features.
The Slender Man stood shakily and turned its eyeless gaze towards them.
Very well. They wanted to do it the hard way? Then the hard way it was.
Mega Man: Inside Out - Slender Man
*Mrs. Andersen's Headquarters*
"Oh my god... Not again..." her Fear murmured.
"Why... why can't that thing just leave Riley alone already?!" her Anger spat.
"He's not getting her," the woman's Sadness declared, getting nods from the other four. "He's not hurting our family if we have anything to say about it."
The display of Mrs. Andersen's sight turned to see the family's newest friend, Dr. Light, working hurriedly to repair his own children.
"Not ours, and not his either."
*Mr. Andersen's Headquarters*
"Gentlemen," Mr. Andersen's Anger stated with more calm than he had any right to, "that thing hurt Riley. We are officially at Defcon 1." (35)
As one, and without argument, Mr. Andersen's other four emotions produced safety keys and inserted them into their relevant key slots in the console before them.
"Physical violence aversions down, sir," Mr. Andersen's Sadness saluted.
"Fight or Flight reactions set to 'Fight' position," his Fear reported as the man's console reconfigured itself for combat.
"Papa Wolf protocols are now in full effect," his Disgust intoned seriously.
"Hockey stick spotted, we are now armed," his Joy noted.
"Gentlemen," Mr. Andersen's Anger gripped the combat controls before him while the others did the same, "let's give him hell."
*The Real World*
"AAAAAAAAA–" Mr. Andersen charged at the thing that had caused his daughter do much suffering, hockey stick raised high.
The Slender Man watched him come, seemingly unconcerned, and when the man was a few feet away, the abomination-in-a-robot made its move...
"–AAAAAAA–"
...and nearly fell over.
"–AAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Mr. Andersen's attack suffered no such clumsiness and collided hard with Slender Man's head, snapping it back hard enough from a forward-bent position that the eldritch machine nearly fell over backwards.
Mr. Andersen didn't stop with that one success though. He swung again, hitting the Slender Man across his lack of face, kicking him in his spaghetti-thin chest, smashing him across the nearly non-existent shoulder, jabbing him in the non-face, bludgeoning him in the side so hard he thought the thing might split in two, grabbing an arm as it tried to retaliate and twisting it viciously before striking the thing across the head again–
"Holy crap..." Fear stared at the sight that pinned Riley's attention.
"Woo! Go dad!" Anger cheered.
*Mr. Andersen's Headquarters*
"Two minutes for slicing!" the man's Joy jeered at the sight. "Two minutes for hooking!"
The Slender Man went down as his feet were pulled out from under him.
"And let's not forget our personal favorite," the man's Anger gave an evil grin and drew back a pair of levers. "Two minutes for HIGH STICKING!"
*The Real World*
–and stared as the Slender Man caught it in his spindly little hand.
Right... Limbs limited to physically possible movement... How droll.
A foot so thin it was nearly a javelin buried itself in Mr. Andersen's stomach, doubling him over as the Slender Man pulled the man across his downed form and stood in one smooth movement. He grabbed the man's punching arm with one hand, twisted it almost to breaking, and raised the other hand, extended two fingers–
Look at me.
–and waited for the man's eyes to stare at him in horrified realization.
*Mr. Andersen's Headquarters*
"Bracing positions!" the man's Fear yelled. "We're about to lose the eyes!"
*The Real World*
I am the last thing you will ever se–
*Crack!*
The Slender Man staggered from a blow to the back of his head.
*Mrs. Andersen's Headquarters*
"Get... your... hands... off... my/our... husband!" Mrs. Andersen's Sadness voiced in perfect time with the woman herself as she held a hockey stick of her own across the Slender Man's throat and pulled back with all her might.
"MESS WITH MAMA BEAR'S FAMILY AND PAY THE PRICE!" the woman's Anger screamed.
*The Real World*
The Slender Man grabbed the stick restraining his head with both hands and snapped it before whipping around, intending to split the woman's face with his bare han–
His strike flew wide as he took a blow to the back of a knee from Mr. Andersen, leaving him open to a blow from Mrs. Andersen's broken improvised weapon.
"Mom?" Sadness voiced to the stunned silence of Headquarters.
"Joy..." Disgust wondered as they all watched Riley's parents take on an eldritch abomination with nothing but a pair of hockey sticks, one of them broken, "when exactly did our parents become awesome?"
"Dad... we can finish this ourselves. We just need a few more seconds."
"Yeah, go help them."
"But..."
"Go!"
That was enough.
Two void-black energy tendrils suddenly sprouted from the Slender Man's back and whipped at the surprised Andersens, wrapping around their throats.
Now–
The Slender Man's body flipped upside down so suddenly that the energy matrix maintaining his tendrils was disrupted, and in the next instant he was blasted forwards past the two as if shot from a cannon. The Andersens stared at the older and more heavyset Dr. Light, his arms extended in a double lunging palm strike where the Slender Man had just been.
Ah... The good doctor... We simply must stop meeting like this.
"Bill, Jill," Dr. Light called to the Andersens as the Slender Man stood back up slowly and deliberately, "get back to Riley."
"But..."
Yes, it didn't matter where they went or what they did. It would all end the same way.
"Don't worry," a younger voice called out, prompting the two to look to where Rock was stepping forwards while supporting his sister Roll and finishing a last-second adjustment, "we've got this."
Did they now?