To Save US All
chapter 22~
9 sensed it before he knew what was going on.
The feeling had come out of nowhere, the sudden itchy knowledge that something very bad was going to happen.
And the guilt that you couldn't do anything about it.
He quickly walked over to the side of the basket and peered over the wall, down to the twenty or so feet below, to check on 7's progress.
He could see them in the Car not too far off, a little bit ahead of them. They were safe.
For now, at least.
6 was on the other side of the basket, looking down to 7, 8 and the brothers along with 9.
"No." 6 piped up suddenly, his head snapping up to 9 with wide and terrified optics. Just because 6 had done this before however many times didn't mean he was used to it. This thing must be horrible.
"What did you say, 6?" said 9, walking to him and placing a hand on 6's shaking shoulder.
"I hear her. She warns me." said the shaking artist, burying his face in his pen nibed hands.
"Who, 6?" said the now scared 9.
"F."
*clank* *scratch* *whir*
G didn't dare move.
There was limited space in the small gutter he had run into, and he was hugging E as close as he could, a sudden fierce determination to protect him overpowering him and making G scowl in the semi-darkness, hating this creature.
*clank* *scratch* *whir*
F closed her optics in terror.
She had managed to jump behind a crumbled wall of a building just in time before the sound she heard only in her head became reality. She shook her head, willing the demon to go away, willing this bad soul to burn and rot, to die.
*clank* *scratch* *whir*
B's optics turned up as he peeked out the hole in the wooden panel he and A had dove under, now clutching each other in terror. Each clank of metal on concrete seemed to vibrate in his head, and he could only dig his shaking fingers into A. A did the same.
*clank* *scratch* *whir*
6 opened his optics. He knew it wasn't around him yet, but since he could hear F's thought's the best, he knew her terror. He remembered.
Soul's never die.
"No." he said.
9 looked up and rushed over to him.
"What did you say, 6?" 9 asked gently, placing a hand on 6's shaking shoulder.
B pressed his mouth into a firm line and looked out of the hole in the wooden panel. The rhythmitic clanking had stopped.
It was quiet, and that was a bad sign.
A opened his mouth to say something but B shook his head and put a shaking finger to his lips, telling A the last thing that would assure them of safety was discussion.
A nodded and B leaned the side of his face against the wooden panel, knowing the wood could attract more vibrations than his old ears could.
Then he heard it. The low growl. Right on the other side of his protective wooden panel.
He should have jumped back in terror, but instead he leaned in closer, raising a stitched eyebrow in curiousity. This thing wasn't human, yet it was. The mechanical frightening sound that terrified B to no end was now only a mechanical creature with no brain.
It could be outwitted.
B slowly backed away from the wood, making no sound as his old wooden feet gently touched the soft dirt of the ground. B looked around him, taking note of any resources he had. He noticed a child's stuffed doll, wearing a ragged blue and white dress with blonde hair. What could he do with that?
Just when he was thinking, B heard a loud yell from across the courtyard, and although he couldn't see anything, he knew G was charging.
B heard clanks and yells and horrified screams as the human, the very thing the stitchpunks were trying to save, was thrashing at G. B looked through the small hole in the wooden panel and saw to both his horror and relief that G was still dodging the beast, narrowly avoiding the slashes and stomps of the creature.
B saw that the creature looked almost like what 6 had drawn- but even more terrifying. It was basically a human skeleton with armor covering the only slightly decaying bones. It looked as if the thing couldn't stand upright like a normal human being, because of the spikes on his back. It's claws were just as menacing as it's teeth, which B presumed was made out of the same alloy. As it was now facing G, one would think it's two frontal red eyes of hate were occupying it's vision. This mistake would get you killed. The creature had one huge eye, drilled into the skull of the human, peering around lazily as the rest of it's body fought, attached to the back of the monster's neck with two thick wires. It seemed as if the BRAIN was watching, and controlling, every movement. As B watched, G flipped, cut, jabbed, dodged, skidded, dove, rolled, and sliced his way toward the beast, but every time he tried to lunge at it, the beast would dodge as well.
Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting scream, completely unexpected and full of torture. B clutched his hands to his ears in incredable pain as the high pitched sound, possibly too high pitched for even a dog to hear, clawed at the air as if alive. Whatever remaining glass windows there were around them shattered at the noise, a telephone pole near the art museum toppled over and a wire popped, sending a shower of sparks to illuminate F's terrified face in the building adjacent to B's. B felt the pain in his optics as if they, too, would break.
But, thankfully, the noise stopped, and B opened his optics, relieved they hadn't broken.
It took several seconds for B to understand that the sound had come from the creature, and it had the same affect on everyone else. G was now on his knees, clutching his ears and screaming himself at the pain that resided even when the beast stopped the high pitched noise.
"What in Creator's name was that?" whispered A into B's ear.
G got up and stared at the creature, which seemed to be... smirking down at him. It knew the pain it caused, and it was about to do it again. G had left the safety of the small gutter to E, and had run out from his hiding place in rage. He wouldn't let the beast get to B, not in a million years.
But to his surprise, E was now screaming his own war cry, sprinting in with 5's crossbow aimed high above the creature's face. The creature tilted it's head and opened it's jaw to scream again. If G knew anything about physics, he knew E would miss if he aimed that high, unless he shot from his stand point right now.
"Bastard!!!" screamed E as he fired the launcher, aiming high but hitting low. E found the shard of metal he had placed in 5's invention hitting the monster right where he wanted it to- the neck. The launched shard of metal slid right through the creature's frontal armor plate and into it's neck, the sound of breaking glass making E smile triumphantly.
The creature, hunched over but not on all fours, threw back it's head and tried to let out one of it's painful high-pitched squeels again, but it found itself disabled.
It found itself Silenced.
E raised his eyebrows as he stood gaping, shocked with himself, and proud. G saw the claw coming at him long before E did, and blocked it with his knife, saving E's life.
The monster couldn't use it's horrible high pitched squeal anymore, but it could still make noise. It roared in hatered as E took off, his purpose fullfilled. F held in her horrified scream as she felt what would happen next. She closed her optics an looked away, knowing her mind would still play it for her. Over and over again. Forever. It was the burden that came with knowledge. She had to know everything this monster would accomplish, and everything it wouldn't.
The monster roared and lunged for E, the movement triggering it's instincts- more like orders from the BRAIN- and telling it to kill. It's claw came down upon E, and the inventor screamed in pain as he was ripped into pieces, mechanics torn unevenly and parts of him being thrown everywhere. The green of his soul stayed behind, whole and terrified. F clamped her hand over her mouth as she saw it played over in her mind, wanted so much to just scream in horror, but having to hold it back, sobbing into her hand. She whispered to her 6 in her mind, reporting everything she was seeing.
E's soul, bound by laws unknown and unwritten, couldn't moved from his body, and stay near the biggest piece of himself, falling to his knees and sobbing at... everything.
G, enraged and beyond control, took a running jump at the creature and flew at it's back, attempting to latched onto something and stay there.
B, who had watched the whole thing through a small hole in his wooden panel, was now dry sobbing too, his hands over his optics.
"Why?!" he screamed, sadness, anger, and horror bleeding in his words. A closed his optics and placed a hand on B's shoulder as G continued to wrestle with the beast outside their hiding place.
"9 will Save us. We just have to help." A said reassuringly, helping B off the ground he had fallen to. "We have to try, brother."
B stood and opened his optics, stopping the sobbing and looking around, nodding and pushing away what he had just witnessed. He looked back to the doll he had spotted, and a spark from the telephone wire caught his vision. His optics adjusted to the light and distance and B saw the rouge wire spark once more, subtle yet fatal. If the creature somehow ran into that...
"A," said B, still looking at the fallen wires, "What was your purpose, again?"
"F." said 6, clamping his hands over his optics as if he was seeing it himself. He was seeing it himself.
"You can see what she see's?" asked 9, dumbfounded.
6 nodded, sobbing as what he saw haunted him, playing over and over like a horror movie. And he didn't have the remote.
"W-what's happeneing?" asked 9, trying to see into 6's optics, trying to reach him. "Are they OK?"
6 shook his head and whispered something so quietly even 9, who was only two centimetter's from his face, couldn't hear.
"Fallen." 6 whispered.
"What?"
"E has fallen."
B stared at the fallen transformer and telephone pole, with it's rouge wire spraking every now and then.
"What was your purpose, again, A?"
"To Distract It." said A, swallowing nothing as he understood what B was getting at.
"Then I'm going to need you to do that." said B, walking over to peek around the wooden panel.
"Excuse me?" hissed A. "Need I remind you of how fast that vulgar creature is capable of going?"
"A," said B, fighting off the recent memory of E but trying to think, "You said it yourself. 9 is here to Save us, we just need to help."
A mentally kicked himself and hide his face in one hand.
"I..."
"A." said B, looking to his brother. "This doesn't garentee you will get killed."
A nodded and removed his hand, knowing B was right, that he was right, and accepeting his possible fate. 9 would find a way to save them. He had accomplished so much so far...
"What do you propose I do?"
"F-fallen?" stamered 9, in shock. The word had captured everyone's attention except for 5, and the twins had abandoned the steering nail to capture this information, leaving 5 to take a flying leap and carefully latched onto the nail, hanging on it and shifting his body when he needed to steer.
"F-f-fallen." whispered 6, hiding his face in his hands again.
9, too numb to notice 5's screams for help, stared at 6 in shock as the twins hugged each other, their mute cries making 9's heart melt.
"9! We're all gonna die if you don't do something now!" 5 cried helplessly as he frantically tried to swing his feet to the left, so the Balloon would stay on course. The Balloon teetered a bit, and it slowly began to tilt to the right.
9, snapping out of his pain, sprinted to 5's side and pushed his feet onto his shoulders, letting 5 right the Balloon and cause 5 to let out a sigh of relief.
6 was on the ground now, curled up in a small ball, tighter than ever, not able to withdraw further into himself. The twins were flashing to each other, hugging 6, making the ball tighter.
9 looked away, to where 5 was looking, to the future, to his destiny.
"Wh-where are 7 and 8? Can you see them?" he said absently, looking for a change in subject, not wanting to upset 5 with the news that his parallel was dead.
5 looked down lazily, as if expecting them to be right below him.
"No," said the guider absently as well, seemingly tired.
"Wait. What?" asked 9, not sure if his paranoia of making sure at least 7 lived was playing tricks on his mind.
5's face tense in surprise as he realized what he just said to 9. He jerked his panicing head back down to scan the ground 20 feet below them.
"5!" yelled 9, not caring who he upset anymore, just wanting to make sure 7 was OK, "I said are they OK!"
5 looked back to 9 with a panicing smile, a smile of insanity, a smile of pure terror.
"I can't see them, 9. They're gone."
A/N: OK, so I feel a little cruel in this chapter because of E but... I had to show you how terrifying this monster was in my head. It was actually a lot more terrifying and I woke up screaming once from a nightmare but... ANYWAYS I have the noise the monster makes when it walks. Remember? The *clank**scratch**whir* noise? yes you remember.
For those on FFnet, I can't really give u a link for it, but here is a url...