Finally, have time to finish this chapter!
-Thursday-
-April 15th, 2010-
-Afternoon-
The creature, the stone monster, the gargoyle, roared. It's voice rattling the ceiling, shaking titles as it jumped from the top of the stairs. Letting out a fresh screech it ran after them, it's claws digging in the linoleum as it galloped after them.
"Shit shit shit!" Helena cursed next to him, surprising him as she kept pace. She could really book it in those heels and it didn't look like she had smokers lung yet. "What the hell is that thing?!"
"Less talking, more running," Barbara said, a step ahead of them both, and Dick couldn't say he disagreed.
They raced across down the hall, feet skidding as they turned a corner and rushed towards the exit. Behind them, they could hear the creatures indignant squawk right before a crash rattled their teeth. Chancing a glance over his shoulder Dick could see the thing picking itself off the ground, shaking drywall off its shoulder as it glared back at him.
He couldn't get through the exit fast enough.
"To the admin building," Barbara barked, "The Security Office is there!"
"And if they can't do anything?" Helena asked, running despite her protest.
"Then we hope they can call the police." She received a snort in response but no argument, especially not after the doors behind them snapped open. The gargoyle grunted as it squeezed itself through, dragging its stoney body through the human sized opening. It's claws digging up turfs of grass and scraping stone as it pulled free.
It gave time for them to run but not much, not enough.
The gargoyle was on their heels, galloping across the field to reach them even as its wings began to flap. Impossibly, horrifyingly, the creature started to rise from the ground. Each clap of its wing a horrible slap to the air. It reached for them, reached for him, long talons spread wide as it closed in.
Dick panicked.
He flipped over it.
Red eyes traced him in rage as he somersaulted above it, hate obviously growing. Dick was just happy to be alive for a bit longer.
"New kid! Over here!" A voice yelled, Helena, arm waving desperately from the new building's doorway. He ran over, not chancing a look behind him and not stopping even as he passed the two girls.
"Hey, wait up!" One voice called as the other yelled to him to "Go up the stairs!". He didn't feel like slowing down but he most certainly follow directions that led him as far away from that door as possible. Though he did stop a bit down the hallway, waiting for them to catch up.
Barbara was fine when she reached him but Helena was starting to breathe a little heavy. "Stupid shoes." She complained, ripping the offending footwear off and rubbing her sore feet, "Don't even know why I wore the stupid things."
"Come on," Barbara said, already moving with a plan firm in her mind. "We didn't lose that thing and we need to keep moving. The security room shouldn't be too far from here."
"Who put you in charge?" Helena asked, following but that seemed more so she could argue then anything else.
"Do you have any better ideas?"
"Find a way back to the gym, pick up a few bats, and actually put up a fight instead of running."
Barbara actually stopped walking to stare at her, "You want to fight that thing? You want to fight what has to be two tons of living, flying, stone? With bats?"
"Better than running."
"Better to be alive."
'How can they be arguing right now?" Dick wondered, shaking his head and about to say that when he noticed something. Something they should have noticed.
It was quiet.
"Where is everyone?" He asked aloud, opening a classroom door at random. It was dark. No, that wasn't right. There was light but it was sporadic, appearing at odd and off angles. It was like someone was using a disco ball to light the room or a dozen mini lamps.
"What the-" Helena said as she peeked in over his shoulder.
Across the hall, Barbara open another door, "It's the same over here." She opened another one, "And over here."
"What's going on?" He asked rhetorically.
Barbara answered anyway, "I don't know."
"Still think the security guards are going to help us?"
"I don't know!" She said a bit louder, a shade below yelling. A hissing roar answered her back. They all flinched. "Let's just go. Now."
The inside of the school, much like the Phys Ed building and the rest of the world, was off colored. Patches of off tinted reality pieced together to make a whole, a solid kaleidoscope forcing the world to conform to its colors.
And it was empty, oh so empty.
Or he wished it was.
The hissing roar continued on the lower floor and the scary part, something answered back. A lot of somethings. All with the same horrible scream. Nothing human could make those sounds.
Their steps became a tad more rushed.
The security room, like all the others, was empty and dark. Darker than the rest even. There were few of the odd lights in the room, most centered around the two swivel chairs or overlaying a far wall.
Barbara tried the phone before slamming it back down, "Not even a dial tone."
"Greeeat." Helena dragged as she searched the room, "Where do they keep the weapons here?"
"It's a high school security office, Helena. You're not going to find anything."
She threw her hands up, "Then what was the point of coming here?"
"I was hoping we could get help or call for it." Barbara admitted with her arms crossed, "But apparently that's not going to work so we might as well try the security cameras. See if it's just one of those things or if there's anyone else here besides us."
"That's not a bad idea there Gordon."
'Did everything that came out her mouth have to sound so snide?' Dick asked himself, still huddling with her as they looked over the redhead's shoulder. But for every screen Barbara turned on or button pressed the only scene she saw was a new shade of television static.
"Great." She muttered, softly but they heard it easily enough. She seemed a bit lost now that her plan fell through.
"Maybe it's just the building?" Dick suggested, "It can't be the whole city, right?"
"I… I don't know. I don't think so?"
"The sky's kind of a rainbow colored mess." Helena pointed out, hip cocked and heels in hand, "Wouldn't that mean the rest of the city is messed up too?"
"Could just be our angle, 'Take a few steps to the side and you've got a different show'." Dick quoted, "If we get off campus we might get a new angle on whatever is happening here. We might even get out of this."
He knew it was a long shot, a Hail Mary, but it was all they had and the girls knew it too. Their only other option was to sit around and wait for that monster to find them.
"Fine." Helena said grudgingly, "I'd still feel better if these rent-a-cops had anything useful around. We could really use a weapon or something."
Barbara face lit up as an idea struck her, "I have an idea."
A walk and a hallway later they came to a door marked 'Storage'. "Really? The Janitor's closet? What, are we supposed to fight off a giant stone monster with mops?"
Despite the criticism Barbara wasn't phased, "And brooms too if we have to, unless you have a better idea?" She waited for a response and let out a satisfied huff when she didn't get one. The satisfaction on her face was a fleeting thing as she tried to turn the handle. She jiggled it a few times but it just wouldn't budge. "Locked… Bertinelli, do you think you could…"
Helena crossed her arms, "And why would I know how to pick a lock?"
"Given your family background I'd be more surprised if you couldn't."
Helena just snorted but approached the door all the same, Barbara helpfully moving out of her way as she drew closer. Then, without so much as a warning, Helena spun around. Her momentum building in a quick and tight circle before her foot lashed harshly against the poor door.
The door creaked open, wood shards drifting from the hole where the handle used to be, and Helena gave Barbara a look, "I skipped lock picking class with Grandpa."
Barbara scoffed and Dick did his best not to get in the crossfire.
Despite Helena's earlier snide remark, they all felt a bit braver with broom handles and box cutters in hand. The hallways didn't seem as forbidding as they advanced with weapons raised, he and Barbara with handles and Helena the only one openly carrying box cutters.
"It should be this way," Barbara said, voice quieting as they neared the front of the school. The distant growl distressingly absent and their breath just a bit too loud for their perked ears.
Step and breathe, step and breathe. The sounds seemed to echo down the halls, over and over again. Dick was sure they could be heard a mile away.
"There's a side exit over there," She whispered, creeping forward and only save by a quick pull from Helena. Stone talons ripped their way out of a classroom door, a serpentine head roared from the new opening as it struggled to fit through the new opening. "Run!"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Helena replied, dragging the other girl with her as the twisted around with Dick hot on their tails.
They twisted down the hallways, hoping to lose the creature with the constant turns and loops of the old building but it bull headedly followed them. Worse, it had a friend join the chase. The creatures could have been twins or clones. Whatever had made or sculpted the monsters didn't seem to have much of an imagination but what little they had clearly worked.
And it was terrifying.
The three of them burst through another door, stumbling down the sudden steps of the auditorium as they continued their run. Some part of Dick knew it was over there and then, just by looking at the wide open space and the high ceiling he knew they were trapped.
More so when one of the monsters jumped over their head and glided down to the bottom of the steps.
It roared and they scattered, juking to one side to the other as they tried to find an escape. Dodging passed grasping talons and a swishing tail Dick hauled himself onto the stage. He didn't stop to breath, his legs were already moving to the discolored exit sign just behind the curtain.
"Bastard!" Helena screamed, stopping Dick dead in his tracks. Looking over his shoulder he saw that neither girl was following him, instead, they were fighting for their lives. Dodging and striking out against the stone monsters with more skill than he could have imagined ethier girl possessing.
But despite their effort, despite all their talent, the gargoyles remained unphased and unhurt. Both girls knew this, they fought all the same with Helena cursing the entire way.
Dick looked back at the exit. He looked back at the girls. And back again.
He could run, he could escape, he could get help, he could leave them behind. But, he couldn't. He couldn't even move, something paralyzed him to where he stood on the stage. Helena had cut on her upper arm, red paste starting to leak from her arm as he watched.
[Is This Truly The Finale To Your Adventure?]
Dick fell to his knees, his hand grasping at his heart and his breath shaking as the voice reverb through his bones. He gasped as he straightened his back, eyes wide as he stared at the girls.
[Is This How You Wish Thing To End? As A Spectator?]
His chest ached as he watched the girls continue to fight, as Barbara's brooms snap in two and yet she persevered. "No." He gasped, heart still aching and standing on legs that refused to stop shaking as the images of two silhouettes colliding with the unforgiving earth filled his mind. "I'm not going to sit and watch again."
[Excellent!] The voice boomed, blue fire forming over Dick's heart and under his fingertips, [Now Step Forward Young Hero And Stand In The Limelight!]
The room became bright as something burned its way through his body and a strength stretched his spine straight, [I Am Thou, Thou Art I. Call Forth My Power And Let The Show Begin!]
Dick screamed, ripping his hand away from his chest and fire burst forth life into the world with an uproarious laugh.
A new pair of eyes appeared behind him, the duel vision taking him by surprise yet it wasn't disorientating. It was natural, as natural as breathing or a handstand.
He could see himself, standing tall and strange. His eyes were glowing a bright white, shadowing his face in an odd way that left a mask like shadow. Stranger still was a flaming blue bird symbol, wings outstretched and even flapping at moments, that burned above his heart.
But behind him was the true sight.
There, right behind him, was a giant of a man if it could be called a man at all. It wore a bright red ringmaster's coat with green gloves clasped over a walking cane and the legs of it's green pants spread wide as it took on the most exaggerated power stance Dick could imagine. Underneath a wide brimmed black top hat, it's underside a bright yellow, was a mask smiling wide as it laughed at the world around it.
[I Am BARNUM, The Circus King!] The thing yelled, [I Am The Power That Burns So Bright Within You With My Power You Shall Show This World A True Wonder!]
"The fuck?" Helena said from below the stage, her gargoyle completely forgetting her as it turned to the new danger in front of it. And cracked, "The fuck!?" She screamed again as stone chips exploded from the monster to reveal something less threatening but so much more alive.
It was shorter than the gargoyle and orange skinned with large fists and a head that looked like it weighed more than the rest of its body combined. It jumped from oversized foot to oversized foot as it bellowed in rage.
Dick glared at the creature, the white lenses of his eyes burning fierce as he remembered the cut on Helena's arm. Barnum chuckled behind Dick, spreading its arms wide as flamed gathered around the head of his cane. "Burn."[Agi]
A fireball ripped through the air, slamming into the monster and sent it skidding through the auditorium seats. The creature was still alive, barely, but neither Dick nor Barnum were giving it a chance to stand again.
Dick flipped through the air, covering more ground then he should have, and slammed his broomstick into the things face. Barnum followed up with his cane, stabbing it through the chest, and bursting the thing into static.
Heart pounding Dick didn't stop there, head snapping up to the gargoyle just starting to crack in front of Barbara. He roared, sweeping his broom wide with Barnum mirroring his attack with his cane.
The blows connected hard, lifting the creature high. Barnum laughed again, snapping his fingers as swirls of purple energy barraged the creature mid-flight, bouncing it through the air until it was nothing but fading black and white snow.
As the last of the flakes faded from existence Barnum regarded Dick through his smiling masks, [Not Bad For An Opening Act]. His voice didn't boom anymore, it was just there. A voice in the back of his head that was not his own but was. {Be Sure To Call Me For An Encore Soon].
He didn't fade, he exited. Flames and purple energy swirling around him to masks his disappearance. The bird symbol over Dick's chest flickered out and the world returned to his mismatched colors, leaving him exhausted.
"Well, that was new." He said before falling to his butt and taking in some desperately need air.
AN:
So, no one guessed the Persona but I hope they aren't disappointed by the choice.