Fragmentation 1.5

(?)

It awoke.

It saw.

A creature, glowing white and twenty times its height, lumbering away from it. Two legged beings flying or running around the creature, hitting it with lights and impacts.

It saw.

Creatures of glowing green mass, forming in the wake of the monster, turning their attention to the two-leggers and attacking, forming balls of green and firing them, sitting still then blasting green in all directions, or jumping at them in a fit of rage. Was it meant to attack the two-leggers too?

Then the ones nearest to it turned, and began to fire at it as well.

It saw.

Orbs approaching from almost every direction, the ones who fired them out of reach of its jumps, teleporting away whenever it neared.

It felt.

Betrayal? The creatures were like it, no? They were green and glowing, formed in the wake of the great monster, but they weren't like it. They attacked all who were nearby but each other.

And it wasn't part of their group.

It saw.

Orbs blotting its vision, hostiles just out of reach, trying to end him like they did the two-leggers.

It felt.

Hopelessness. Doom. An end approaching if he couldn't hurt the others.

It saw.

Darkness.

A fire, in the distance

Flame bright with warmth.

Figures sat around it, none but one glancing his way.

The one with the ~guitar~ guitar spoke.

"Hey Horror, he says you don't need much of his help."

Was Horror its name? Fitting, in a way.

"All you need to do, is open your mouth, and scream."

Scream huh?

The fire flickered, and both he and the ~guitarist~ guitarist returned their attention to it.

Horror watched a spark float into the sky, merging with the stars.

The stars began to spin ~dance~ no, dance, and he faded to black once more.

Horror awoke, and screamed.

A beam of pure ~radiation~ radiation spewed out of Horror's mouth, decimating the horde of ~guardians~ guardians in front of it. Chunks of green material fell from their bodies, as well as a black and blue ~lightning pistol~ lightning pistol and some orange boxes (~ammunition~).

Then the beam hit the monster that was walking away, and everything stopped.

The two-leggers… ~humans~ humans had paused, tracking where the beam came from, and while some seemed… ~shocked~ shocked at Horror's appearance, most continued to beat on the monstrosity.

The monster had instead turned to look at Horror, and tilted its head ~not a head, empty~ at it. Then, as if giving off a sense of indifference, it flashed white once more, and turned back around.

Did Horror's beam really do so little?

No. It pierced through the guardians with ease. The monster must be horrifically strong ~too strong~. It is too strong for Horror then. The humans have all returned to fighting the monster now, but Horror sees no use in fighting. The monster is too strong for Horror, but the monster was never hostile towards Horror in the first place. It had forgiven Horror's attack, so Horror will not give chase. These humans though, were openly attacking it, causing little ~superficial~ damage to it.

Why did the humans fight this monster? Didn't they see it was hopeless? Horror had watched at least fifteen humans die to the monster, and it wasn't sure if the humans were good or… ~good. Most of the time. Careful of bandaged or blue ones~ If humans were good, why did they fight? Did that make the monster bad?

The monster began to glow again, the white shining bright enough to force all of the humans to turn away, but Horror was entranced. ~Radiation~ Horror was getting stronger. Something was changing within Horror, and as the humans were turning and running, something SPARKED. And then the monster paused again.

~Grab the lightning pistol~ Horror grabbed the lightning pistol as something inside his head sparked again, connecting with the gun.

~Try again with this~

He did.

And the monster turned.

It glared.

~Oops~

Horror didn't think the monster was going to ignore it now.

~sorry…~

Horror turned, and ran.

"That poor thing" Tick Tock said out loud.

"What, the radiation abomination?" Accord replied.

"Only twelve minutes old and fighting an Endbringer. Isn't that an inspiration?"

"Was he the dimensional shift we sensed earlier?" a thinker named Dyrr asked.

"Yes, the poor dearie triggered only a minute after birth. Such a sad sight." Tick Tock sighed "But I suppose I should refocus, no?"

"Yes Tick Tock," Accord growled out "you should."

"Oh you're such a fuddy duddy Accord, don't you know how to appreciate the birth of new life?"

"Not," Accord almost snarled "during an Endbringer attack."

"Oh, that's right!"

'I will not kill these people during an Endbringer attack.' Accord repeated his mantra to himself. I will not kill these people during an Endbringer attack.'

It was back.

The Proto-damned bird was back.

It must have been following Horror.

It had to have been for months.

Just to stare at him.

And… flap around and such.

And screech.

This… INFERNAL bird had been after Horror since a day after it fled the monster.

Horror hated birds.

~Always have. ~ Always will.

But most of all, Horror hated crows. ~or was it ravens? ~

Their screeching yell, from dawn until dusk, their piercing red stare, their ability to avoid Horror's radiation beam.

~Their submachineguns hidden between their feathers. ~

Their submachine… Crows didn't have submachineguns… ~not yet anyway~ where had that idea come from?

Doesn't matter. All that matters is Horror's hatred for birds.

But mostly crows ~or ravens~.

Fuck crows ~and ravens~.

Horror had gotten it.

The damnable bird was dead.

Horror had never been happier in its life.

Peaceful, calm, and relaxing silence.

Horror welcomed it with glee.

*BOOOOM*

Proto fucking damn it!

Horror saw a plume of smoke in the distance, in the direction it had been going.

Horror had walked towards where the sun had risen and away from the monster ever since the fight. It didn't know where Horror was walking to, but away from the monster was a good a place as any.

There had been tall rocks in the direction the monster was walking, and they looked interesting with snow on the tips of them, but if the last glare the monster sent its way was any indication of Horror's death, it wanted to be as far away from that thing as possible.

So Horror went away. Towards the sun, not stopping, until Horror was where it was now: approaching the smoke a short distance away.

Horror hoped it was friendly.

25 was mad. His latest resupply probe had crashed just west of New Hampshire, and a mass of radiation was approaching it. It looked like one of the Hounds, but it was about the size of a coyote, instead of a large sedan.

"Yo 03, you seeing this?" he sent to 03 cautiously.

He wasn't sure if this runt was hostile or not. More often than not, Hounds immediately attacked anything that moved, but this one was cautiously approaching, almost as if it was… thinking.

"OOOH! It's him!" a childish screech came back over the connection.

It was 46, the radiation Administrator.

"What, what is it?"

"Not it… Him. He's a thinking Hound, or… maybe a Dog… Not sure, but this little guy is a living, breathing (maybe not breathing), being!" 46 somehow yelled over the connection.

"What do you mean, being?" 03's voice came over.

"Well," 46 replied, actually responding seriously for once "this little guy over here appeared in the Behemoth fight seven months ago where he, and I quote, '… scared the fuck out of every thinker in the region by going through a trigger event and…'"

"Wait, wait, wait, this Hound triggered? I thought only sentient beings could trigger?" 25 interjected.

"Exactly!" 46 continued "Which is why every cape group in North America wants their hands on him."

"Well, what are his powers then?" 25 exasperatedly asked.

"That's just the thing," a voice came over his speakers "Nobody knows."

"M-mother! "26 and 45 stammer out "It's an honor to speak with you again so soon" "How you doing Mother?"

"A pleasure 26, and well, 45, but I'm afraid talk must come later, a friend from Brockton Bay heard that I had found him, and wants to talk it out, so you guys can watch, but please stay quiet."

"Going on a date mom?" 03 asked smugly.

"S-shut up 03, it's not a date. He's just a very good friend" Mother answered almost too quickly "And remember, call me Dragon in case someone is listening in. We don't have encryptions out in the middle of the woods."

"Alright 'Dragon'!" 46 yelled out "Have fun with your prince!"

"It's not a date!" Mother spurted out as 25, 46, and 03 went silent

Horror wasn't sure what it was looking at. The object was a mixture of ~Robot~ Robot and a car, but it was far sleeker than anything Horror had seen in the ruins it'd passed while fleeing the monster.

~Careful…~ Horror took out hit lightning pistol and creeped forward towards the smoking device, when the door on the top exploded off and away. ~I hope it hits a crow. ~

Something flew out of the top. ~Oh proto is that a bird?!~

Horror was about to fire when it began to hover, and then Horror gave it a glance.

It had four flames spurting out of cylinders surrounding a black box, and two greyish arms jutting out of the sides.

'Why is there a speaker on a space probe Dragon?'

'Well you see… Oh! It's on!"

'Errr, hello? Can you hear me?'

Horror heard some noises, but didn't know what it meant. ~Uhhh, not Trashtalk. Can't help you here, me. ~ So Horror just cocked its head to the side like the monster had after his beam hit it.

'Well he heard you Colin, but he clearly didn't understand. Here, let me try.'

The not bird began flashing lights out in a distinct order: pause, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34… the flashes continued as Horror thought to itself.

~Ooh, I know this one, it's the Fibonacci sequence Steroids taught us! ~

Horror knew what it meant, but not what to do. ~maybe copy it? ~ Copying it would just seem like mimicry to the not bird, maybe the circle number… ~Pi~ Pi would be better.

So Horror sent out light the only way it knew how.

'Err, what is it doing?'

'Maybe it's…'

Horror tilted its head back, and screamed.

'Back up! Back up!'

'Sensors are burning out! Careful Colin, we lost engines, the cameras, and the backup battery.'

~3, pause, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9…~

'Wait, Colin look at the Geiger counter!'

'It's telling us Pi?'

'No Colin, he's responding to the Fibonacci sequence with another mathematical constant. He's intelligent.'

'Amazing…'

Horror looked back down once it got to the fifteenth decimal place and noticed the not bird was gone. Had it flown away? ~Look down~ Oh look! It was just napping. Horror didn't understand why some things slept, but it couldn't so it might never understand.

~Wake it up, maybe it knows Trashtalk. ~

Horror went up to the sleeping not bird and noticed a red light flashing on its back.

~Could it be like robot? ~

"Can you understand me?"

The light continued to flash, but more sounds came out of the box.

'Is it, speaking to us? Dragon, what language is that, I sounds familiar.'

'There are similarities to the language the Rebels use in Brockton, but they've never given out translations, so if we use what we've heard we'd be going in blind.'

'Maybe we should try a phrase?'

'Oh, here's one that looks nice'

"Fuck off you rapist."

What? ~I can't even rape anything! What a bunch of assholes! ~

Horror was disgusted. It thought the not bird was friendly, sharing mathematical constants and everything, but all it does is curse it out once it learns its language.

Horror spat a wad of radiation at the not bird and walked away.

'Dragon, what did you say to it?'

'Um, I may have just insulted him.'

'Why?'

'The, uh, only times this language is said is when one or both of the Rebels are being attacked, so…'

'We might have just used its language's curse words at it.'

'Maybe?'

'Well, it's gone now. Where's it headed?'

'I have satellites focusing in on him… Now! We should be able to keep track of it.'

'Good, if we have something or someone else meet up with it we might be able to continue talks.'

'Alright Colin, I'll see what I can do.'

'Maybe this time you won't resolve to cursing it out in its native tongue.'

'C-Colin!'