Note: I wonder where I'm going with this...
"-and that is what's really happening. I haven't told anybody else." Anna put a comforting hand on Ella's shoulder. "It must be a lot to take in. Do you have any questions?"
Ella felt her ears go hot. She scanned the bathroom, trying to look anywhere but in the other girl's direction. As far as public restrooms go, it was nice. It had air freshener, and clean floors. It was painted a nice color, if you liked beige.
"Um... what was that part about the thing?" She finally asked.
"What thing? The thing about you not really being the oldest OC?"
"No, I got that part. I mean the other thing."
"The thing about how the oldest OC is a Mary-Sue of unlimited strength?"
"No, but that is a scary thought. The other thing."
For a minute, all she got was a blank expression. Then, Anna pounded her fist into her palm. "Oh! You mean the thing where you're the only one that can stop her from warping all of the remaining stories beyond recognition, stealing the main character's abilities, and manipulating the creator into writing a story about her!"
"Yeah. That. How am I supposed to do that?" Ella nervously tucked her hair behind her ears. "I can't fight. I could never fight! I'm not even alive. I died in my story a long time before it was deleted, and I barely got to spend any time in training."
Anna frowned, drawing her little blonde eyebrows together. It made a strange contrast to her obnoxious smiley-face jacket.
"Yeah, I remember. But you-"
She was suddenly cut off by a loud siren which Ella immediately recognized as a reader warning.
"Reader approaching fanfic, My Bright Life. All characters report to your beginning stations. Repeat, reader approaching fanfic..."
"Oh, cheeseballs!" Anna was hurriedly removing her watch. "I need to go."
"When will you be back?" Ella asked, following the other OC out of the bathroom and into the Café area.
"I don't know, my fic is pretty long!" Anna's sneakers slapped the linoleum as she made her way to the exit. "Could be awhile."
"What am I supposed to do?" Begged Ella. "I don't have any way of even finding the oldest OC!"
"You'll figure it out." They reached the door, where several minor OCs were waiting. "I'm sure you can do it. Just remember your past and keep your chin up! All it takes is a little magic, right?"
Anna beamed at her, waved, and dashed through the exit of the hub. The minor characters followed her in, and soon, Ella found herself alone.
It began slithering toward me, it's eyes practically glowing with hate. I was too scared to scream, too scared to run, too scared to defend myself. I was paralyzed in my fear. Everything went in slow motion. The snake was inching it's way toward me, slowly opening it's mouth. I think either Lacy or Natalie called out my name, I couldn't be sure. Tammy jumped in front of me, her sword in her hand. She swung it downward right on the monster's green, snakey head...
Nothing happened.
The snake made a few hisses that sounded like chuckles, before slamming it's head into Tammy's stomach. She practically flew to the side, screaming. This wasn't right. What was going on?
"Farewell, golden sssspawn." Crowed the King of Snakes. He opened his mouth and struck.
I screamed. The pain was awful, worse than anything I'd ever felt. Like fire flowing through my veins. My vision became splotchy and dark. My last thought was one of panic.
'The story doesn't end this way!"
As it turned out, the hub had gotten very very boring in the years Ella had been banished.
In her day, the hub had been amazing. It had been colorful mishmash of the creator's thoughts, dreams, and ideas. Most often, it had been Neverland. Occasionally, it had been underwater, with beautiful coral reefs and a rainbow of fish. Just before The Daughter of Music was taken down, when the creator was working on a new story, it had been Camp Halfblood.
She sat at a table in the café, anxiously tapping her fingers. Every-so-often, she would see OCs going in and out of their stories. Sometimes they'd wave, or introduce themselves. Most of them didn't even notice her, but she couldn't fault them for that.
Almost every OC she'd seen that day had looked pale, fidgety and exhausted. The creator, from what she'd gathered, had not kept her promises of finishing all of her stories.
One OC, a rare male ("Call me Genovia!") had explained that almost none of the stories were of the same fandom anymore either.
"It's a little hard to connect with people," Genovia looked mournfully the packet of fruit chews he'd somehow managed to nab from the vending machine by the water fountain. "Sort of like talking to someone from a whole different planet."
He sighed, carelessly tossing the packet over his shoulder. "Still no pear flavor. What a crime! I should have those banned in my country."
Ella promptly excused herself. She'd already heard more than enough about his 'country', and wasn't in the mood to listen in on another speech. Each word seemed to suck the life out of her. OCs didn't need to sleep when they were off-duty, but just thinking about Genovia the country was enough to make her yawn.
There weren't a lot of places to go in the hub, not in it's current form. Every corner she looked in was occupied, and she did not feel up to another conversation. She felt tired, and it was silly! She hadn't done a day's work in years. It was a little bit confusing. Maybe the isolation had turned her into an introvert. She didn't remember ever being this shy before.
Abruptly, she stopped walking. This turned out to be a mistake, as there was someone walking along behind her. That someone bumped into her, sending her sprawling painfully onto her stomach.
She looked up. All she could see was a mass of orange. Briefly, Ella wondered if it was another PJO OC. Her vision cleared a little more. The person who had knocked her over was wearing an orange jumpsuit. Prisoner's wear.
"Woopsie daisy!" The woman in the orange jumpsuit giggled in a thick accent. "It seems I have made a mistake. Where are my manners? Shame on you, Yue. Such a cluttered brain!" The woman laughed hysterically. It was very unnerving, especially when Ella noticed the scar along the woman's jaw.
Ella stood up. The woman looked a little familiar, but didn't exactly seem like the best person to get involved with. Maybe if she could just inch away...
"Ha!" A hand slammed down on her shoulder. The convict woman was glaring at her, a sneer on her face. "You think you go somewhere? Leave Yue behind? Learn some manners, child!" The woman looked furious. Her eyes literally began to glow with rage. "I shall be your teacher!"
Ella's meager training and convenient demigod instincts kicked in just in time for her to dodge two laser beams. Laser beams.
"Woah!" She squeaked, staring at the twin scorch marks in the carpet. "Powers?"
Normally, a woman with laser vision would be small potatoes. Anything was possible when it came to fiction. There had been a scene in Ella's own story where she'd screamed high pitched enough to kill something, and did.
But being in the hub neutralized any superhuman abilities any of the OCs might've had. It was for the protection of both the characters and the stories themselves, because if an OC died at any place or any time that wasn't specified by their fanfic, they stayed dead until the next time the author read their story. Yue seemed to have not gotten the memo though, because she didn't stop attacking.
"Stop that!" Shrieked Ella, ducking away from another pair of laser beams. "What are you doing?"
Yue opened her mouth, probably to say something mad. But before she could get even a single word out, her legs were kicked out from under her.
The super villain tumbled to the ground, the glow coming from her eyes shutting off as she fell. Her chin crashed hard into one of the empty metal bookshelves. It was a terrible fall. She might not have gotten up at all, even without the aid of the swift kick to the back of her head, courtesy of her attacker.
"Oh my God, that went so much better than I was expecting!" Cheered the generic looking teenage boy, nudging Yue with his foot. "I totally didn't think this was going to work, this is awesome. Are you okay?"
Ah, good. Another satisfactory chapter finished.