*SCREEEE*
"How the fuck do we stop this thing?"
"You don't! You just jump off!", Vanoss shouted to Wildcat.
"JUMP OFF?! Evan we're hundreds of feet in the fucking air!", Wildcat shouted back. "Can we even steer this thing towards the ground?!"
"Does it have a steering wheel?"
*SCREEEE*
"AHHHHH FUCKING HELL!"
"Birdie go towards smoke!", Vanoss directed. The griffon followed as commanded rather calmly.
"Dude how the fuck can you command a lion bird?", Wildcat said from behind him.
"I got WIIIIIIIIIINGS!", Vanoss said spreading his wings leaning against the back of the bird. The bird with two axes for flight was capable of much better maneuvers. The griffon dived down at a ninety degree angle and picked up speed immensely.
"EVAN TELL IT TO STAAHAHAHAHAHAHHP!"
Vanoss leaned back and the bird pulled up and jetted toward the plume of smoke in the near distance. Buildings and people passed quickly beneath them at their current speed. Some of the people screamed as they thought it was a grimm.
"You good back there ya big cry baby?", Vanoss teased.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND PUT ME ON THE GROUND!"
"Alright!"
"Evan what the fu-NOOOO!", Wildcat screamed as Vanoss rolled with the griffon flipping wildcat upside down.
"FIX IT!"
"I don't know Wildcat the bird doesn't like screaming", Vanoss replied calmly.
*SCREEEEE*
"AHAHAHAAAA OKOKOK I'M SORRY!"
With that Vanoss flipped the griffon over, but Wildcat wasn't behind him anymore.
"Huh? OH SHIT!", Evan said thinking the worst.
"EVAN WHAT THE FUCK!?", Wildcat shouted from under the bird.
"Oh GOOD! I thought we dropped you!", Vanoss leaned over to see the griffon holding wildcat by the shoulders in it's claws.
"Don't even say the word DROP asshole!"
"Okay we're going down!", Vanoss shouted seating himself back on the bird.
"We're gonna crash?!"
"No we're going down slowly I don't think we're aerodynamic enough with it holding you. It's too front heavy or something", Vanoss explained.
"Wait I see Terroriser! Tell this bird thing to drop me o-"
"Alright! DROP HIM!"
"AAAAhhhhhh fuck you Evan!", Wildcat said falling.
"Landing strategy!", Vanoss shouted.
Wildcat drew his rocket launcher and extended it into its dual form. In mid air he flipped over and practically folded in half when he dug his axe blade into the side of a stone brick building. Sparks flew as chunks of stone and dust slowed him down until he stopped halfway down the large building. His axe blade was stuck.
"Oh fucking great", Tyler mumbled to himself. He flipped the trigger and exploded himself off the building before landing on top of his axe now stuck in the street. Hopping off and hefting it up with both hands onto his shoulder, he almost fell over before taking off in the direction of the smoke. Thankfully Evan dropped him pretty close.
Speaking of which-
"EVAN!"
"WILDCAT!"
"UGHHAUGH!"
They both stopped to look at Terroriser. "Sorry it's hard to control but both of you shut the fuck up!", Brian said shakily.
"What? He went in there alone? Why didn't you go with him you're a robot!", Wildcat asked.
"Cybernetic organism, and secondly that teleport took a lot out of me. I don't have a lot of aura left", Terroriser said tired.
"Alright well we gotta go in there and help him!", Evan said. Wildcat was about to agree himself when Terroriser grabbed Evan's shoulder.
"Are you nuts?! That's a goddamned fire!", he shouted.
"But Delirious is in there!", Vanoss shouted back.
"Evan I'm running the probabilities. More than half of the total structure is completely damaged. I tried to stop delirious but he just barged in!"
"Well what the fuck do we do then just stay here?", Tyler asked.
"I don't know! I'm not used to this situation! I can't- I- I- I CaaaaaaannnnnnnnT run these fast enough!", Terroriser said glitching out.
"Okay there's no point in running stats if they can't change the outcome so what can we do?", Wildcat asked.
"Uh, I don't know. Delirious knows the interior apparently so he has the best chance inside. Evan shouldn't go in because his wings will burn easily. Wildcat you're a better choice but your weapon is really heavy. Try not to damage anything unless necessary", Terroriser said calming down.
"I got it!", Wildcat said running into the door.
"What the hell was that?! He just ran right in there!", Eve shouted from behind them.
"Eve!", Evan shouted running over. "Did you see what happened? Anyone start this?", he asked.
"No I didn't see. I just picked up a report on the scanner. How did you all get here so-"
*SCREEEE*
"What the hell is that thing?!", she shouted fearing the half eagle half lion creature behind Evan.
"It's a griffon, long sto-"
"It shouldn't exist!", Eve shouted backing away from the bird thing slowly.
"Neither should he! He's half killer robot!", Evan pointed to Terroriser. Eve looked at his metallic half of his face. He lowered his glasses slightly and showed her his glowing red eye.
"Sup."
"Uhhhh", Eve said confused. "What happened since you left?", she turned back to Evan.
"Not important. Terroriser what else can we do?", Evan asked promptly.
"Fucking hell. Okay uhhh there's a backdraft coming in from broken parts of the building and it's feeding the fire. On top of that there's a lot of debris either weighing down the house or blocking exits. I don't really know what we can do about that", Brian said feeling defeated.
"Wait backdraft? Like wind? Eve-"
"No.", she cut Evan off
"But Eve it's an emergency. We might need it!", Vanoss protested.
"But what if something goes wrong? There's too many people around here, there could be people who get hurt, you know I can't control this!"
"Alright look, the only people here are us, Wildcat and Delirious and whoever may be inside. I don't know why there's no fucking FIREFIGHTERS when there's a giant fucking FIRE but we need to do what we can. We're huntsman.", Brian added.
"But I'm not! I just run a coffee shop!", Eve shouted kind of nervous. Brian looked back and forth between Evan and Eve.
"Why is she here?", he deadpanned.
"She's a good friend. She also kinda let me know when people were in danger before I became a huntsman.", Vanoss explained.
"That doesn't answer the question! Why is she here?! As of right now she's a hazard to herself. Can she even help?"
"No!", Eve shouted at them.
"Yes! She can! Her semblance is wind!", Vanoss said over her.
"Wind? We don't need more wind! We need less! The internal structure of the building created a-"
"Okayokayokay shutup! Eve can control the wind."
Brian looked to Eve. "Is that true?"
"Yeah but it's not something exact! It's really focus requiring and straining and-it-it's not even wind! It's like, atmosphere!", Eve explained.
"Look, right now you're in a black T-shirt and jeans. You're not fit to go inside. If you can help in any way you can we need to do it now! My semblance has run out and Vanoss can only turn into objects. Wildcat can't use his for anything practical and Delirious is probably pushing himself trying to explore every room at the same time. We need everything we can get. Can you help?", Brian asked.
"I-I can try", she responded nervously.
"Okay, good. What do you think you can do?"
"She could make it rain!", Vanoss shouted.
"I said I could try!"
"Okay but that will only help the exposed parts of the building. Anything else? Can you redirect the wind?", Brian asked.
"Maybe."
"Why maybe?"
"Eve's semblance is unpredictable", Vanoss said.
"How?", Brian looked to Eve.
"There's too many ways! If I push wind too hard it could cause a tornado, or depressurized the atmosphere, or cause a lightning strike or-or-or!"
"Hey just relax", Evan put a hand on her shoulder. "Just focus on what you can do."
She looked him dead in the eyes. Mask rather. She looked him dead in the mask eyes.
"I… Can create a funnel, but that runs the risk of a tornado. I can make a rainstorm but that runs the risk of lightning strikes. I could try to shift the wind speed?"
"Great. Do what you can. Not too little or too much though", Brian asked.
"What? Why?"
"Too much wind will put out the fire but could cause collateral damage. Too much low pressure could also suffocate the fire, but could also suffocate Wildcat and Delirious inside."
"I CAN'T FUCKING WIN!", She shouted running her hands through her hair. "Why fire? Why does it have to be fire!"
"Wait! I got it!", Vanoss said.
"Got what?", Brian asked. "We need to act soon. The fire doubles intensity every minute."
"It's fire! It needs oxygen!"
"No shit but so do-"
"It also needs heat and fuel. If we can take away two of the three it should die instantly", Vanoss cut off Brian.
"That's not how the fire triangle works!"
"Yeah but trying to affect one only amplifies the other!"
"That's still not how it works!"
"I could also control the fire?", Eve said quietly. The two stopped their bickering and returned their attention.
"You can?", Brian asked.
"Yeah. It's the atmosphere. Fire is basically rapid oxygen creating smoke. I can slow it down or I can speed it up. Like a controlled forest fire.", Eve explained.
"Okay okay. That helps a lot. But if it's as unpredictable as you say we're gonna need some help directing it."
"I can do that!", Evan volunteered.
"Okayyyyy, but we're gonna need somebody to go inside to help direct it."
"Why can't you go?", Eve asked. "You're a machine. You don't even have lungs do you?"
"No bu-"
"Then get you should be able to do machine stuff. I'm not exact and you're like a calculator so you'll calculate the fire!", Eve shouted pointing to the building.
"I am not a calculator!"
"Guys!", Wildcat came running out covered in black stuff.
"Dude! You alright?!", Vanoss asked concerned.
Wildcat coughed and heaved. "I'm fine but delirious is in there still. I couldn't find him. Any of him. No clones, no nothing. The smoke is too thick he might've passed out or he's getting tired. How long has he been in there?", Wildcat asked.
"Almost three minutes", Brian said.
"What have you fuckers been doing since then?!"
"WILL EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP?!", Eve shouted.
"Wildcat sit tight. Brian go look for delirious!"
"Got it dude!", Wildcat said sitting down nearly collapsing. He put his hands above his head to open his lungs (actually works), and fell over.
"Agghhhh Fuck! This is gonna hurt!", Terroriser said running into the building.
"Eve just focus. Where can you feel the fire?", Vanoss said.
Eve closed her eyes and the wind picked up. "Everywhere!"
"Just concentrate! Find out where it's hottest and start from there", Evan said.
Eve sighed. "Okay. Now what?"
"Condense it."
"What? Wouldn't that just make it hotter?", Eve said with her eyes still closed.
"No just draw the fire back toward its center. If you can stop it from expanding it should just burn out", Vanoss explained.
Eve started to shake and tears flowed from her eyes. "Evan I can't!" The wind picked up stronger. It whistled and picked up speed immensely. Her hair flew to the side and the smoke from the building followed. The building was in terrible condition. Fire was visible on the second floor and on the other side a bottom corner of the building was already disintegrated. As Terroriser entered the main door to the building the smoke followed a pattern back around the building.
Wildcat looked up at the sky as it filled with smoke and embers. She was sucking the smoke out of the building. She was forming a funnel.
"Eve you're drawing out too much wind", Vanoss explained.
"I'm not even trying too!", Eve fell to her knees and clutched her head. Vanoss was by her side to keep her steady but the funnel continued. The wind became visible and picked up a dark grey absorbing the smoke. The wind was loud and Vanoss had to shout above his usual indoor voice.
"It's drawing out the smoke! It's alright just focus on the fire. Where is it concentrated the most?"
"It's too hard to sense! There's more heat in the right half of the building but that's all I can tell!"
"Guys what the fuck is happening?!", Wildcat said still lying down in the street. Looking up at the sky Vanoss could see the funnel had reached the ground. It was blocking out most of the light picking up a thick black color.
"It's a-"
"We know what it is wildcat!", Vanoss shouted.
"Eve! Just look at me!", He gripped her shoulders.
Eve opened her eyes but they showed only fear. She couldn't hear him anymore. It grew cold almost immediately.
Vanoss took off his mask and could see his breath.
"You gotta snap out of it!"
A dull ring surrounded them as lightning struck the street. It echoed like a drum in a tube and seemed to knock Eve into a daze.
"What the fuck is happening?!", Wildcat screamed.
"She's overwhelmed! She can't take this much at once!", Vanoss shouted back.
"Well snap her out of it!", he yelled back still on the street. He made an attempt to get up but only managed to slump onto one knee.
"AH SHIT!", Evan ducked as a support beam flew past his head. He grabbed Eve and held her down as to not get struck by the debris. Managing to hold onto his mask he placed it over Eve's head. It fit loosely on her head and Vanoss brought her into a hug. Wrapping his wings around her he blocked out the wind and tried to bring her back.
BACK AT BEACON
"*snnnOOOORE* Ugh wha HAH?!", Nogla looked around the nurse' office. He was in the nurse bed he was last in, although when he checked his scroll it was just a bit later. And his team was nowhere to be found. Scrolling through his scroll he brought up their contacts but noticed their signal was offline.
"Well that's fuckin' strange", Nogla mumbled to himself. Flopping his legs over the side of the bed Nogla leaned back and let out several slow cracks as his vertebrae released pressure.
"Ahh fuck that's nice", he said happily straightening back up. Seeing his weapon in club form leaning on the wall he shifted it into it's portable mortar form and slung it over his shoulders like a backpack. How his spine didn't break was incredible. He always assumed it was his semblance. His mass shifted with his current size, and so did his immediate objects. Constantly shifting weight made him pretty resilient.
Whistling a tune from the likes of which nobody would probably recognise. It was from his homeland. A little place nobody knew about. Strolling out the nurse' office he still found nobody nearby. He would've thought a good nurse would've maybe watched over her fuckin' patients but whatever that's none of his business. Only a concussion.. Probably.
"Oh shit that's right! I'm gonna kick Tyler's ass!", Nogla smirked to himself. With a bounce in his step he strolled down the hallway with a kick in his step. "Maybe what's their faces know where they are", he pulled out his scroll and brought up Ruby.
The scroll buzzed only, not, not at all. She picked up immediately. "David!", she shouted into the mic.
"Who hold your horse turds! No need to shout", Nogla said back into the tiny device. "Anyway have you seen my team?"
"Well yes bu-"
"Where are they?", Nogla cut her off.
"They jumped off the school on the griffin!"
"Oh cool! Was Tyler with em?", Nogla said uninterested.
"Yes! And Evan so-"
"Good! See ya la-"
"HOLD ON JUST A FUCKIN' MOMENT!", Ruby shouted on her end. Nogla was surprised and threw his phone up into the air. Luckily he caught it and just in time for her to keep talking.
"You'r friends bail off a building and you just brush it off?!"
"I'm not worried about Evan because he can just glide down, and Tyler shot me in the head with a FOKIN' rocket!", he shouted back.
"What about Delirious?", she asked concerned.
"Oh shit forgot about him. He could just like, make a pile of clones to catch him or something. He'll be fiiiiiine", Nogla said casually.
"Have you not seen the news?!"
"Nope bye!"
"Don't you FUCKIN'-"
*Beep*
He collapsed the scroll and shoved it in his pocket only for it to blow up a few seconds later. Ruby was spamming him with texts.
'Bitch did you just hang up on me?!'
'AAAAAAAAAA-'
*Click*
He closed his scroll again and set his notifications off.
"Man for a kid she sure has a temper", he smirked to himself.
"Who has a temper?"
Nogla turned around to see Yang with a stack of pancakes, a fork not meant for eating pancakes, and a plate. Which was not meant to hold that many pancakes.
"Holy shit Scooby-Doo much?", Nogla commented on the ridiculous looking stack.
Yang just blinked in confusion. "What?"
"Nah you're more like that Daphny bitch", he said thinking aloud.
"Excuse me?", Yang said a little more loud.
"Oh! I was talking to your sister. She's got a temper", Nogla said immediately changing the subject.
"Wait! You can't just say I'm like a bi-"
"Sorry Yang I got brain damage-amage-amage!", he said turning around continuing his pace down the hallway.
Yang stifled a laugh before noticing he was still walking. "Hey! Wait up!", Yang said shuffling along with the rather stupid big stack of food.
"It's my turn to look after you!", she said catching up to his pace.
"Look after me? What the hell for? I only got brain damage!", Nogla said rather simply.
"Only?", she looked at him weirdly. "Whatever. My team was looking after you while you were out. You're team and the new guy left. It's my shift!", she said happily.
"Oh that explains one thing."
"What thing?"
"How I just coincidentally ran into you after leaving the nurse' office", he explained.
"And the other thing?"
"The fuck is with the pancakes?!", he half shouted. Yang laughed out loud and nearly dropped them.
"I was hungry so I raided the new supply of pancakes. Since' y'know…"
"Oh yeah! The giant pancake ass! That was a good one", Nogla said giving the O sign with his pointer finger and thumb.
"Yeah. And I figured you might be awake by now. And you are! Speaking of which where are we going now that you are?", Yang asked slowly. It's not like he could have anything to do…
"I'm gonna head to a store downtown, get a new mask", he said nonchalantly.
Apparently he does!
"Oh, okay but I don't think you should be going out with a concussion", Yang advised.
"What? Aren't you the reckless one in your team?", Nogla asked stopping and turning to look at her.
"Yeah but-"
"Tell you what, you eat your pancakes and I'll go to the mask store! We're huntsman and huntresses. We can handle ourselves!", Nogla tried to reassure her.
"I brought these for both of us!", she said looking him in the eyes. "And there's a freaking lot! So the only way I'm letting you go is if you-"
"Done! Challenge accepted."
"...What?"
"I said challenge accepted!"
"But you didn't even hear it!"
"Didn't have to. You want me to eat more pancakes than you right? Well let's go. I'll accept your bet", he said smugly. "IF~", he challenged.
Yang got nervous. He seemed way too confident about her bet. Her face flushed a little.
"You pay for my mask!", he put his hands on his hips.
"I-I uh", Yang stuttered. "That's it?", Yang asked in a semi surprised tone.
"Yep. Otherwise I'm just gonna go anyway", he said bored.
Yang's face almost held disappointment. Or concern. Nogla couldn't tell. Then he could see her make an evil smirk. "Fine! But I didn't make a bet! That's just me supposed to be keeping you here. If I win", Yang paused for a moment. "I wanna carry you in my pocket!", she practically jumped a little with puppy eyes.
"That sounds both incredibly dangerous and weird", Nogla said looking surprised. Yang's face returned to being disappointed.
"You're on!", he held his hand out to shake on it, but found her hands were elsewhere. They were below her waist holding onto the giant plate of pancakes. He followed the trail of pancakes that started from her chin, which was tilted up so she could lean the food against herself, down to below her waist.
"Did you just check me out?", Yang asked giggling.
"Wha- no the pancakes!"
"Suuuuurrre", Yang said giggling.
"Oh for fu- come on I can't even see you behind there!", Nogla argued.
"You can see my legs!", Yang countered. Then Nogla immediately looked down at her legs.
"Oh I guess I can", Nogla said dumbly. Yang burst out laughing at his obliviousness to awkwardness. She started walking again down the hallway toward who knows where.
"My eyes are up here!", she shouted and kept walking.
"Oh come on! You did that on purpose!", Nogla said being fooled.
"Well now you're staring at my butt!", Yang shouted to Nogla behind her.
"N-no!"
Yang couldn't take it anymore. He was too funny to tease. She burst out laughing and stumbled around laughing. "Nogla come grab these pancakes before I dropped them!", she said out of breath.
"Got it", he said casually picking it up
Yang finally fell to her knees she clutched her stomach she was laughing so hard.
"*GAAAAAAAASSsp* Okay!", Yang finished. "Let's just eat them here. They were a pain in the ass to get here, they'll be a pain in the ass to get anywhere else", Yang said.
"Okay", he said setting the plate of pancakes' now invisible on the flat red carpet of the floor. The pancakes were bigger than the plate.
"Alright, now go!", Yang said a stack of three from the top as if it were a sandwich. She was eating pretty fast too. "This isn't even as fast as I can go either!", she said with a mouth full. She leaned around the pancakes to see how fast Nogla was eating. She couldn't see over it now that they were both on the floor.
Nogla just help a big floppy pancake in front of his face stroking his chin.
"Hmmm…", he hummed to himself.
"Something wrong?", she asked competitively. "You're not getting cold feet are you?"
"No no. This isn't so bad. In fact I have an idea", he said placing the pancake back on top. He stood up over the pancakes still stroking his chin as if inspecting them.
Yang cleared her throat finally done with her food.
"Ehem. What's your ideeeaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
*BUUURRRP!*
Nogla stood back up lifting his face from the floor.
"That was pretty good! Coulda used some maple syrup though", he said casually as if it didn't just happen.
Yang's face was still looking as if it was screaming but she pointed at the floor in panic.
"WHERE DID THE PLATE GO?!"
Earlier with Delirious
*FLASH*
"Whoa! That was trippy!", Delirious said stumbling over trying to move. He tripped and fell over seemingly nothing. When he rolled over he inspected where Terroriser had teleported him. There was a big circular crater carved into the pavement ground.
"What the hell was that?!", Delirious pointed to the crater Terroriser was still standing in.
"Oh this? This is called a Terroriser spot", he said casually.
"A what?", Delirious asked confused.
"Everytime I teleport it leaves this big circle crater in the ground. If you ever want to know where I somehow teleported too you gotta find one of these Terroriser spots", he explained.
"I- uh sure whatever! Where's the fire?! This isn't the street!", Delirious said getting back up.
"I know I know. This was as far as I could get us right now. I can try to teleport there again but I only have enough for myself", Terroriser explained.
"Alright- uh- uh throw me!", Delirious said suddenly.
"What? Are you nuts?"
"No I'm serious! Throw me over in the direction of the fire! Wherever it is!", Delirious said grabbing his jacket.
"Alright alright fine! But only because it's an emergency", he said picking up Delirious like a javelin.
"Let's do it!", Delirious said striking a superman pose. "I'm a plain motherfuckEEEERRrrrrrr!", he screamed as Brian threw him toward the plume of smoke.
"Man he really is Delirious. That guy's out of his mind!", Terroriser said before flashing and in a burst of light he teleported.
*FLASH*
Brian appeared in another Terroriser spot. This time he had made it. But he had depleted a lot of aura in using his semblance at such a distance. Not to mention with Delirious.
"-EEEEERRRRRR!", Delirious came over head and crashed face first into the pavement. What's worse his mask dug into the ground and was stuck. Delirious just kinda lied there with his mask stuck to the ground.
"MMMPHMHM-M-M-MMMHMHMHMH-HMPH!", He tried to say.
"What? Oh shit are you okay?!", Brian suddenly realizing he was stuck. "Hold on I'll get you out of the pavement!"
Brian got awkwardly behind Delirious and pulled on his leg. "It's not working!"
"MHMPH!"
"I am pulling toward the center of weight!"
"MPHMHMHMMMMPH!"
"No I am not pulling from there!"
"MMMPH!"
"Do YOU wanna try it?", Brian asked getting a little annoyed.
"...mph…"
"That's what I thought!", Brian said. Brian back up and grabbed delirious by the ankles and raised them before lashing them back down with force as if he were snapping a whip. Delirious almost like a worm flopped his face out of the ground and his body hit the street again.
Brian walked over concerned. "Hey man you alright?"
"I said- Hey look I made a Delirious spot", Delirious rolled over. Parallel to his head was an indent of his mask in the street.
"Holy shit dude you hit the ground like a truck!", Brian said putting his hands on his head.
Delirious stumbled upon getting up. "Yes I am a truck! I- I need- I need gas. Pump me. Pump me please", he said stumbling around talking to nobody in particular.
"Delirious shut up for a second and look!", Terroriser grabbed him and faced him toward the burning building. Delirious seemed to register the intensity of the situation. His eyes glazed over as he looked into the fire.
"We need to help", he said jolting toward the building. He only got one foot forward before Brian stopped him.
"We need to wait for help. A fire department or something should show up soon."
"We don't have time to wait! There's a fire in a children's home!", Delirious said turning toward Brian.
"I know but-"
"Listen you're a robot! You're like half calculator! You should know that the fire gets bigger the longer we wait. And the odds are the longer we wait the more time someone is likely to die in there-is-is increasing indefinitely!", Delirious pointed behind him.
"But it's a goddamned fire! There's smoke and debris I don't know, FUCKING FIRE!"
"We have aura. And it's our job as huntsmen to help people. I know the inside of that building! I used to live here! I can navigate around any place in this house better than anyone else can. And I can send copies of myself to do the same", Delirious explained.
"Aura doesn't protect your lungs from smoke! And I'm not a fucking calculator!", Brian said.
"I need to go in there. Are you coming or not?", Delirious said looking stern through the mask.
Terroriser was trying to say something. Anything really. But he couldn't. Delirious had his answer. "Stay here and look for Vanoss and Wildcat. They should be here soon. Or the fire department! Anyone useful!", he said turning into the building. He ran up some stone steps to a white wooden door. The door was locked for whatever reason so he grabbed his weapon and broke the lock off with the butt of his shotgun. Then he shoulder bashed the door open and ran into the smoke.
Terroriser watched as he ran in. He could faintly see Delirious through the smoke only for a brief second. Then he was gone. Brian looked toward the building. Two floors and smoke was pluming out the back side. The windows were barred. The fucking morons obviously were careless of fire hazards. Smoke filled the second floor faster and found ways out the windows. They could have melted.
Terroriser took off his glasses and flipped them around. He could see his red retina in the reflection.
'Melted…', he thought to himself. For a second, Terroriser saw his moments. They weren't his own. Well, Brian's. They were what the machine saw. After Brian died.
Fire.
Buildings collapsing.
A body slumped to the floor.
Who's was it?
His metallic arms stung.
Metal heats up faster.
Fire engulfed his vision.
Neo.
His memory failing.
Then there was a gap. Some lost link in time. Somewhere between Brain and the Terroriser. He didn't know who was afraid of fire more. Him, or the machine. He knew why the machine was afraid. It would melt. Fail. It couldn't comprehend death but it could fear somehow.
Brian, on the other hand... Brian was dead. His memories recorded in a unit of storage. But none of them are really his.
"Fuck", he mumbled to himself. "Be safe in there." He put his glasses back on and let the fire reflect in them.
…
Delirious burst through the door with his weapon on his back. Best not to intimidate anyone inside. Coming into the main hall he could see the place almost looked ransacked. It was a short stretch of hallway that lead to another door. The doors in the halls were left open and several things scattered around inside. The beds had no sheets, the walls were chipping their paint, and the floors were hardwood.
The door on the end of the hall lead to the stairs to the second floor. Delirious split into four copies of himself. As long as he could focus on one thing he could keep his clones stable. It was a weird experience perceiving more than one body at once. But it was the fastest way to search the building.
'Search, find, protect', he repeated to himself. He needed to keep calm. Two clones went upstairs, while he and the other remained on the main floor.
The building was mostly just rooms for the children to live in. There was a main room he could check on the first floor. Running down the end of the hallway while his clone checked the rooms he bashed through the door next to the stairs. The brown wooden door came off the hinges. This room was actually on fire. Smoke filled his face so he only caught a glimpse before he coughed. The room looked robbed. Everything was taken except for a coffee table, a cupboard, and a couch. All of which, along with part of the floor was on fire. The windows in the room were barred from the outside but the glass was broken. Someone would have had to break them on the inside.
Backing his way out of the room he coughed and heaved. The smoke built up and was practically low enough to reach his bottom his hand over the mask holes he tried to filter more of it out, but ultimately failed. Instead he took off his blue hoodie and tied the sleeves around the mask covering everything but his eye holes. He was more exposed in just a black T-shirt but he would breathe easier.
Taking a deep breath he moved back into the living room with burning furniture and waved the smoke out of his face. Fire was spreading across the right part of the room. Too the far left of the room lead to a kitchen. To a far right was another door. It was big and wooden painted white but was closed.
"Shit! I forgot about the basement!", he shouted. Attempting to reach it proved difficult as it was blocked by a wall of flames and smoke. The flames were over halfway up his body height. There was no way over unless he could find something to put over it. He looked to his door he had broken down.
'It'll have to do', he improvised.
He dragged the wooden door and dropped it over the fire. It would only suffocate the fire for a second so he needed to act fast. Crossing over the door and wasting no time had opened the door with too much force. He would expect it to be locked but apparently wasn't.
'Nobody should be down here. Nobody is in the building! Why would anybody be down here?'
He saw through his clones eyes. They were having a hard time focusing. Nothing. They found nothing. There was a massive part of the second floor completely burned and exposing the building to the outside. The walls were completely destroyed and smoke built from excess oxygen. There was nothing left in that room. He lost focus his clone vanished.
"Shit!", he stumbled against the door. He linked with another one. The one in the hallway before he entered the room hadn't made it through all the rooms. His clones weren't sentient enough and lost consciousness through the smoke before disappearing. He saw one of the children's rooms on fire. Still nobody. Nothing in the room. Drawers picked clean, furniture destroyed. Nothing left to burn really.
Delirious shook off the daze. His last one was still checking upstairs. The door opened and down led a small set of wooden stairs. If anyone came down here it was either a really good idea or a really bad idea. But somewhere over the roaring of the fire and smoke, he heard something. It was crying. A kid crying.
"Hello?!", Delirious shouted loudly. The crying only seemed to get louder.
Delirious rushed down the stairs carefully not to trip and fall. "Don't worry I'm comin'!"
The sobs continued. It was dark but he could faintly see a little girl at the bottom of the stairs. She was sobbing into her knees. Her pink clothes were covered in black soot, likely stained from smoke. They looked like pyjamas.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs he knelt down beside the girl. "Hey are you okay?", he asked loudly. She hid into her knees and shouted "No!"
"No? No what are you hurt? You're not okay?", he asked again.
"Don't hurt me!", she sobbed into her knees. Delirious realised he must look pretty weird. He was wearing a hockey mask wrapped in a sweatshirt and yelling. His eyes filled with concern. It wasn't unheard of for children in homes to have these lives. And right now her home was on fire…
"Hey", Delirious said removing his sweatshirt. He spoke as softly as he could but the building was falling apart and burning loudly. "I know I must look pretty scary", he said showing her his mask. The little girl looked up. Her eyes were wide with terror still but she wasn't as loud anymore. "I'm a huntsman though. I'm gonna get you out of here okay? This place is dangerous! But you're gonna get out of here. I promise", he said wrapping his sweatshirt around her. She still looked terrified.
"What? Is it the mask?", he asked. She didn't say anything. He figured it was anyway. He removed it anyway and the girl gave a cry. He'd forgotten his clown makeup was still on.
"Oh goddammit", he said. He grabbed the sleeve of his sweatshirt back from her and wiped his face off. The heat helped it come off rather easily and smudged his sweatshirt. He in the process rubbed some soot on his face and had some black smudges in place.
"Listen, my name is Jonathan. People call me Delirious. Sometimes John. I'm a huntsman okay? You can trust me", he said trying to sound convincing. "What's your name?", he said rather fast. They didn't have time to talk.
"Amber", she said quietly.
"Alright Amber, we gotta get outta here. Like right now! Is there anyone else in the house?", he practically shouted.
"My frog!", she shouted.
"What like a stuffed animal frog?", he asked rather stupid.
"No! My pet frog! He's upstairs!", she shouted.
"Oh SHIT! NOT A FROG!", Delirious shouted at the top of his lungs. Just then Delirious' last clone stumbled and rolled down the stairs. He fell into a crippled position, but his left arm was bent straight up. And in his hand was a fat, green bullfrog.
They both stared at it as it gave as low croak and Delirious' clone vanished into a puff of air.
"Timmy!", Amber shouted. The Frog hit the ground and scuttled his way over to amber before jumping into her arms. She wrapped her arms around it in Delirious' too big sweatshirt sleeves.
"Timmy the frog! Alright let's go!", he said about the put his mask back on.
"But the fire!" she pointed. Up at the top of the wooden stairs the door had already been set ablaze. Smoke had already filled the surface of the room and was making it's way down the stairwell. It already filled the entire top half of the living room and had nowhere else to go.
"Shit! UHhHhHHHH!", Delirious searched around. The basement was too dark and there's not a chance the light's were gonna work now. Suddenly, there was a roar and a rumbling sound followed by it. The smoke was being sucked out from the stairwell as if it we're magic.
"What the hell?", Delirious asked himself. Then a loud boom struck close by. It was loud enough to scare Amber and she screamed.
"What's happening?!", she covered her face in the sleeves with her frog.
"I don't know! We need to move though!", he gave amber his mask, which was also too big.
"Here, this'll make you brave! I gotta search for a way out!", he pulled the mask over her face and fumbled his way around the basement. Poking around with his weapon like a blind man he searched all across the room. It was empty just like the rest of the rooms. The only source of light was by Amber and that was from the fire above the stairs.
About halfway across the dark room he heard a rumbling. He couldn't tell what it was but it sounded different from before. Mixing with the other noises he quit poking around and just moved toward the source of the noise. Poking his machete end out in from of him he hit the source of the rumbling. The weapon gave a 'tink' as it hit metal.
"What the hell is this?", Delirious mumbled to himself. Cautiously moving his hand closer, he expected it to be burning hot. But it wasn't. It was cold and was now giving loud bangs as it shook. It was slanted and Delirious nearly tripped.
"What the fuck, stairs?", Delirious mumbled again. "Oh son of a bitch it's a cellar door!", Delirious cursed for forgetting. He ran back across the room to Amber.
"I found a way out, c'mon!", he picked up Amber not waiting for a response.
"It's locked!", she responded anyway. He would have guessed she tried it herself. He couldn't see in the direction they were headed but shot a shell at the door leading outside. The area lit up and the door filled with small misshapen holes. The light poured in, but it was an odd colored light. Sharp whistling sucked out air through the tiny holes. The wind wisped and swirled outside as an odd blue light showed through the tiny holes. Another huge boom sounded as the holes flashed with light.
"It's a thunderstorm! It must be raining", Delirious said not thinking it through. He could just barely see where the lock was as the lightning strike illuminated the area just enough. He aimed his shotgun at the lock and fired again.
"Wait!", Amber shouted. The door crashed open as the wind pulled on the iron doors.
"OH GOD NOOOOO!", Delirious shouted. "IT'S A TORNADO!"
Amber screamed. Delirious turned and practically was sucked out the cellar door when a firm grip grasped his wrist. His legs were flailing about while he gripped onto the screaming child. Grabbing his wrist was Brian.
"Oh SHIT! Terroriser help!"
"I'm trying!", he pulled back as his boots slid slowly across the ground. Even with his mechanical metal body the wind was too strong. Delirious looked back outside the door. He could only see a wall of strong wind pulling smoke. Light was being distorted through the wind but lit up an odd blue color. Another flash flew by. An electric arc flew by the cellar door and struck the Iron door, lighting the area in a flash. He kept his death grip on the kid, and she her frog.
"Grab the girl!", he shouted to Brian. Brian did as told and awkwardly wrapped his arm around her whilst still in Delirious' arm.
"Do you have her?"
"Yeah!"
"Say the words!"
"I fucking got her!"
"Good! Now pull her behind you!", Delirious shouted. Brian Knelt down to center his weight and took the girl in one arm behind him. But Delirious was still dragging them.
"You weigh too fucking much!", Brian said.
"I know! Let me got!"
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKI-"
"We can't afford to get dragged out the door Brian!"
"I just walked into a goddamned burning building to save your ass! I'm not letting go!", Brian said furious at the idea.
Delirious met his eyes only for a second. "I know…", he said in a calm tone. Still holding onto his weapon, he swung it over his arm and stabbed the end of his machete into Brains hand.
"Ah FUCK! You asshole!", Brian shouted.
"I'm sorry!", Delirious shouted. With the end of his machete sticking through his artificial skin he fired a round and severed the surrounding skin around his mechanical hand. His artificial skin loosened and slipped right off his metal hand as Delirious flew out the door and into the storm.
"Delirious!", Terroriser shouted. His weapon went with him as all that was left was silence. Brian stopped dragging pulled himself and the girl back. He stared at his hand and the mechanical parts shifted into a closed fist. His real body was protected with aura. Not the outside.
"SHIT!", Brian yelled. He turned around to the girl.
"Just hang on I'm getting us out of here", he said to her. She didn't say anything and just held onto him. He wrapped his other arm around her and used the remainder of his aura to get them as far away as possible. He had no other plans. But he had to try. Lightning cracked around them as they were enveloped in light. And then in a flash and a boom, they disappeared…
And so did everything else.
BACKWITHNOGLA
"Okaaaaay", Nogla said browsing the rows of masks. "Let's see here. What kinda maks do you think I should get? Something like an animal or a monster or-"
"I can't believe you ate that many pancakes at once. Are we still not gonna talk about that?", Yang said holding her arms out expectantly. She didn't know what to do as of body language. She had kept her end of the deal but she still couldn't believe how Nogla won.
"I don't know what you're talkin' bout", Nogla said nonchalantly.
"You're supposed to be in school so we can look after you!", Yang complained behind him.
"I don't know what you're talkin' about. I'm having a wonderful time", Nogla retorted putting down a random mask.
"You ate a LOT of pancakes Nogla", Yang said almost sounding concerned.
"The pancakes have spoken! They have chosen Nogla as their leader!", he said looking at a pancake mask. He liked the idea but decided against it.
"YOU ATE THE ENTIRE PLATE NOGLA!", Yang shouted.
"Well that explains why my seconds are taking so long", Nogla put down the mask and moved onto another stand.
*CRUNCH*
"OH! That was the plate!", Nogla said acknowledging the sound coming from his insides. "I appear to have swallowed it whole", he said paying no more attention.
"Your jaw unhinged like a snake Nogla! It was terrifying!", Yang said clearly disturbed.
(A/N THIS IS THE REFERENCE! FROM THE LAST LINEBREAK TO HERE. FIRST ONE TO GET IT GETS THEIR SUGGESTION IN THE STORY (GIVEN IT'S APPROPRIATE AND DOESN'T ALTER THE STORY DRAMATICALLY (I LET YOU KNOW THIS WAS THE ONE THIS TIME BECAUSE NOBODY FOUND IT LAST TIME!)))
"I can't go anywhere with you Nogla. I'm never gonna be able to get that out of my mind", Yang said still picturing it. Nogla put down the random mask and sighed.
"Nah, none of these seem me", he said throwing a red devilish mask with an eyepatch back on the shelf.
"Are you like part snake faunas or something? Because your jaw shouldn't DO THAT!", Yang wouldn't let this go.
"Honestly Yang I didn't even see it. It couldn't have been that bad", he said turning to face her. He walked into her hand holding up a piece of scrap paper. He backed up and pulled it off his face.
"That's what it looked like!", Yang said loudly while Nogla stared at the picture. It was cartoonish in a sense. Nogla's eyes were bulbous and round with tiny pupils and a tiny nose and with no facial hair, his mouth was bigger than his entire head.
"Oh yeah! That does have a sense of me to it", he said appreciating the drawing. "BUT, it's missing something", Nogla said pulling out a pen. He scribbled on a tiny microphone wrapped around his enormous cartoony head (his mask in his current logo. Also on the cover art). He flipped the paper back over and showed it to Yang.
"You don't seem to see what I meant", she quickly glanced over the paper. Nogla turned around inside the little mask store and walked up to someone at a stand. Yang didn't even bother anymore. She was concerned of his reckless behavior. Weird right? She leaned outside the wall of the building. She didn't know this store. Nogla had somehow. It was on the south side of town by the docks. The street looked over the water and the sun shined down on the sidewalk by the little mask store.
The store itself was just a walk in kiosk with one of those long flat umbrella shade stands to keep the sidewalk from burning up. That had masks in bins, on shelves, and a little space in the back for custom made masks.
She looked out to the water over the guard wall across the street. Wind came in over the water and provided a nice breeze. It was a nice day though. She supposed it would have been bad to miss this by staying inside. As weird as the new group was, she was enjoying their antics more than usual. Maybe they were lowering expectations. But they all seemed to have fun. It really is contagious.
Yang smiled to herself, and for just a moment she felt unusually happy. Like, just more than usual. Then Nogla came back.
"HEY THEY MADE IT INTO A MASK!"
"EUUUGHAAAAHHH!", Yang screamed seeing the face now in a permanent form. Nogla had decided to just put it on his face and wear it right in front of her for some reason.
"What?", he asked with a not changing facial expression.
Yang's eye twitched. "It-it exists forever now", Yang said slowly.
"Oh shush it's not so bad. C'mon if ya want you can still put me in your pocket", he said shrinking down. Yang knelt down and picked up the tiny Nogla in her palm.
"You look like a bobble head", Yang said commenting on his new mask.
"You look like you could cover up mo-OW BITCH!", he shouted as Yang flicked him in his tiny mask.
"Yup. Bobblehead", Yang smirked. She opened up the little pocket on her belt and plopped the Nogla inside.
"I'm a pocket Nogla!", he said poking his head out with his mask on. His mask and everything else on him shrunk with him. She'd need to figure out out that worked.
"So like, if I gave you something and you shrunk while holding it, would it shrink?", Yang said walking toward her bike. Bumblebee was parked off to the side.
"Depends what it is", Nogla said looking at the world as a tiny person.
"How about a dog?", Yang asked mischievously.
"Why would you wanna shrink a dog? They're already tiny! I have a wee Joe back at home", Nogla said.
"Your dog's name is Joe?", She said looking down into her belt pocket.
"Don't change the subject shrinking your dog would be cruel!"
"Okay how about we make it big then?", Yang asked again mischievously.
"See, now I like where we're going with this", Nogla liked the idea. "Why?"
"I have to get Ruby back for the time she bit my hand", Yang explained.
"Oh yeah! That sounds reasonable", Nogla agreed again. Nogla slumped down in the pocket next to Yang's scroll and took out his own scroll in tiny form. "You know Ruby texted me a while ago. Let's see if she kept blowing up my phoooooooooooooo-"
"What happened?", Yang asked, not caring that she looked like she was talking to herself.
"Two hundred fifty four messages!", Nogla said surprised.
"Holy shit!"
"I know right? What could be so important?"
"No holy shit Nogla get out here!", Yang shouted concerned. Nogla struggled to lift himself out of the tiny pocket and flopped out onto the ground before returning to normal size.
"Ah-AH! Where's the fire?!", Nogla said getting up woozy. He turned in the direction Yang was facing.
"Oh shit…", Nogla said seriously. He took off his mask and handed it to Yang. "Hold this", he gave Yang the now normal size mask and ran over to what Yang had been looking at. Delirious crashed slumped onto Yang's bike Bumblebee but he was looking in really bad shape. He didn't have his mask or his sweatshirt and his black T-shirt looked burned and torn in some place. His boots were covered in black chars and his skin was covered in black soot as if he fell into a pile of coal. They almost didn't recognise him without the mask or his clown makeup. But the griffin was also there.
The griffin was drawing attention as people gathered to look at it. It stood over Delirious and constantly screeched at anyone that tried to approach. They likely thought the creature did this to him. Nogla ran up to the bird guarding Delirious. It quickly glanced at him and screeched at him just the same.
*SCREEEE*
"Hey hey, easy it's me remember? The pancakes?", Nogla slowed down holding up his hands so the bird could see he meant no harm. The bird stopped and cocked its head at him.
"Pancakes", he said plainly. The griffin perked up at the word. It then lowered its head and nudged into Nogla. Nogla rubbed his hand along the bird's head. Then it pulled back and gave a nudge to the unconscious Delirious next to him.
He knelt down next to him slumped up against Yang's bike and Yang decided to come over as well. Setting the mask down beside her the griffon also let her pass.
"John. John! Come on, wake up John", Yang started shaking him.
"He's not coming to", Nogla said.
"OH! Ruby showed me a trick. Hold on", Yang said shifting Ember Celica into gauntlet mode.
"I don't think that's a good id-", Nogla was cut off.
*BANG*
Yang fired off her gauntlets right next to Jonathan's ear.
"AHHHHH MY FUCKIN' EARDRU-Plugh pl- PLeAugH", Delirious muffled out as the griffon licked his face.
"Griffious get off me!", he said.
"Welcome back dude", Nogla said a little relieved. "Almost didn't recognise ya."
"Nogla? The fuck? OH SHIT!"
"Wha-wha-WHAT?!", Nogla said standing up surprised.
"OH SHIT WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?!"
"Where are who?", Yang said being the only one calm at the moment.
"Evan and Wildcat and Terroriser! Where are they?!", Delirious said trying to get up.
"I don't know dude why don't you ask the griffon. He brought you here", Yang suggested.
"Griffious! Can you take me back?", Delirious said failing to stand up. Nogla helped him up and returned their attention to the griffon.
The griffon shifted uncomfortably and stuck out it's left wing and paw. It's wing had a scrape along the shoulder and it's paw was rather hurt badly. It looked like it was struck and burned with a bolt from the storm.
"You got me here even though you were hurt. Good boy, but don't be reckless! Do you at least know where they are buddy?", Delirious asked. The griffon was staring at something on the ground though. It kept it's head low as if.
"What is he looking at?", Delirious asked to look at it before following the gaze to Nogla's head.
"He's looking at this", Nogla said with his mask on again.
"AHHHHHHHH!", Delirious screamed pointing his finger at Nogla's head.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", Yang screamed pointing at the hand in Delirious' hand pointing at Nogla. "WHY DO YOU HAVE A SKINNED HAND?!"
Delirious stared at it for a moment before tossing it up in the air. "AHH!", he shouted in surprise.
*SCREEE*
The griffon hopped up on two legs and ate the hand skin.
"EWW! I don't know what's more gross, watching Nogla eat 3 digits worth of pancakes or watching the griffon eat a hand! I think I'm gonna be sick…", Yang said bending over.
Hearing the word Pancakes and Nogla the griffon started pecking at Nogla's mask.
"Hey stop it! I just got this!", Nogla said trying to pry the mask out of the bird's mouth. Eventually the bird took the entire mask and tried to swallow it. Being incredibly big it was having a hard time. Nogla rushed back toward's it's mouth trying to pry it's mouth open in one hand while grasping the mask in the other.
"GIVE IT BACK!", He grappled with the bird.
"Delirious! Come help me!", Nogla said.
"Okay. He already ate a hand. Might as well put another one in it's mouth", Delirious replied sarcastically. Getting up to help Nola he held the Bird's beak open, although fearfully.
"Alright I got it open", he said to Nogla.
"Can you go any further?", Nogla said yanking on the mask.
"No, I think beaks only go so far!"
"Okay, well I'm gonna shrink it!", Nogla said grasping onto the helmet with one hand, not looking where his other hand was.
"Nogla let go of the bird!", Yang said knowing what was about to happen.
"I got it!", Nogla said pulling his spit covered mask out of the bird's mouth. The bird fell over from letting go with such force in a tug of war. He fell on top of Nogla while his arm remained stuck out holding his mask underneath the bird.
"Nogla no! Bad Griffious! Get off him!", Delirious shouted trying to roll the bird over on it's side. The bird rolled over and squirmed like a cat stretching on it's back.
"You guys are adorable", they heard Yang said. Everyone looked up at Yang… several times bigger than them.
"AwwwwwwWAIT!", Nogla said out of surprise and disappointment. "I shrunk you Delirious!"
"I know! And Griffious!", he said pointing at the tiny bird. It was about the size of a small house cat now. Nogla and Delirious were even smaller.
"Awwwww It's adorable now! There's no way Ruby won't force you guys to keep it like that", Yang said bending over scratching the cta part of the griffon's body.
"Yang from down here we can see-", Delirious was cut off from Nogla's hand.
"THE SUN! IT'S VERY BRIGHT TODAY!", Delirious rolled his eyes moving Nogla's hand off his mouth.
"That's a very perky E sized sun Nogla and that's great but change us back so we can go goddammit! The other's could be trapped in a tornado!"
Nogla just kept looking at the 'sun'. Delirious grabbed Nogla's mask and kept smacking him over the head. Nogla didn't even flinch.
"Pancakes", Delirious said. As if on cue the griffon jumped onto tiny Nogla and tried to either eat his face of lick it.
"Ahhhh alright alright jeez I'll change us back!", Nogla said managing to push it off him. "But that wasn't supposed to happen! I don't know how I was able to shrink people! I mean certain animals but- I- I don't know!"
"Well at least give it a try! THe other's need us right now!", Delirious said clearly worried.
"Alright alright fine. Come here griffon", Nogla said motioning the bird to come over. Nogla was about to grab him when Yang picked him up.
"Let's just keep you guys this size. He'll be easier to take care of when he's this small. Besides, now you guys can keep it. He'll be easier to feed and clean and we won't have to worry about him pooping on Ozpin's windows again! Well, maybe the last one but it'll be tiny", Yang said picking up the animal in her arms.
"We are not-"
"NOGLA! BIG! NOW!"
"Alright alright!", Nogla grabbed his friend by the forearm and grew them back to normal size.
"I'll bring this little guy back to the school. You guys find your team", Yang said. Sitting down on the bike she put the griffon between her legs and put her helmet on.
"Actually, I have another idea", Delirious said. Yang looked at him curiously.
"What?"
WITHRUBYANDTEAM
"That's a big hole", Ruby said rather confused.
"It's not a hole. It's a concave… something", Blake said trying to figure out the scene herself. Weiss didn't bother over a proper term. She with several others was just looking at the scene of destruction. In front of them was a circular indent in the ground. It was as if a giant sphere smashed into the ground and left a perfect circular indent where the building once was. But it wasn't just an indent. It looked perfectly smooth. As if it was machined or drilled or whatever could leave a perfect spherical indent span of hundreds of feet.
"It's a spot", Weiss said. Both her teammates looked at her with curiosity.
"Weiss that's the dumbest name for a hole I've ever heard", Ruby said. Weiss facepalmed. She didn't even know why she was trying.
"Whatever. The building is gone, and so is Evan, Tyler and Brian. Come to think about it parts of the building's nearby are missing too. They fit the sphere pattern too", Blake mentioned.
"Shouldn't there be like, police here?", Ruby asked.
"Shouldn't there have been a fire department? They're really late. Not only is the fire gone, but so is everything.", Weiss added.
"Oh. Yeah… I think it's time to reevaluate where our taxes are going", Ruby said.
"What taxes?", Weiss asked nonsensical.
"OH MY GOD NOOO!", They heard a familiar voice behind them. They all turned around to see Yang and Delirious heading toward them on Bumblebee.
"John! Yang!", Ruby shouted running to meet them. Yang came to a stop and killed the engine. She took off her helmet and viewed the scene.
"What happened?", she asked seriously. Yang took in the scene.
"Yang where have you been? We tried calling you! And why aren't you with David?", Ruby asked concerned.
"First of all-", Yang was stopped.
"Let me handle this Delirious said from behind her. Stepping off the bike Ruby could see tiny Griffious sat upon Delirious' shoulder.
"Well, okay. That thing is adorable now. Just had to say it", Ruby said.
"Yeah I-"
"Mine", the griffon appeared on her head faster than Delirious could even see. Damn she could move fast. Even the griffon seemed confused.
"Okay. Well first of all, they just found me. So if it wasn't for them, I'd probably be unconscious somewhere and Griffious would still be hurt", Delirious pointed to the bird. The bird promptly jumped into Blake's arms upon seeing her. Surprised but not wanting to drop it she held it in her arms like a cat.
"You named it?", Blake asked.
"They?", Weiss asked.
"You can tell it's a boy?", Ruby asked.
"Yes, I named him Griffious. By they I mean Yang and Nogla. As for the last part I think that griffons identify as attack helicopters. But now it's just an attack kitten", Delirious looked at the tiny animal rolling around in Blake's arms.
"Is he hurt?", Weiss asked.
"No, I think Griffious' aura should take care of it" Delirious said.
"Not him you tard! I mean Nogla! Where is he?", Weiss asked again.
"He's in my pocket!", Yang added still sitting on Bumblebee.
Her team turned to stare at her until Nogla's mask popped out of her tiny belt pocket.
"I'm a pocket Nogla!", He said excitedly.
Her team was silent. "Is that a Nogla in your pocket or are you really just happy to see us?", Weiss asked.
"Both"
"Both", Yang and Nogla said at the same time.
"But that was a terrible pun", Yang added as Nogla flopped out of her belt pocket. Flopping onto the ground he returned to normal size. And returned to normal size.
"Why is his face-", Ruby was about to ask.
"It's a mask!", Delirious half shouted. "Does anyone know where the four of them went?"
"Four?", Blake asked.
"Evan's friend showed up and created a tornado. I got thrown out trying to save Terroriser and a kid in the building, and I guess Terroriser made another Terroriser spot. Aww man that mean's my Delirious spot- nevermind! Terroriser said if we ever wanna find him after he teleports we need to find the terroriser spot", Delirious explained. "Oh and Griffious ate his fake hand."
"Ew", Blake said dropping him. He landed on his feet like a cat and quickly scuttled over to Delirious again sitting next to his boot. Which was also somewhat in bad shape.
"But Yang, we called you, where have you been?", Blake asked her partner.
"Huh?", Yang checked all her pockets and found it in the one Nogla was in. "Oh crap! I thought that was just Nogla rustling around in my pocket!", she said checking her missed calls.
"Why was he in your-"
"Guys!", Delirious cut Ruby off. "Do we have any clues? Like any at all?". He asked looking to his friends. Nobody said anything.
"Okay. Uuuuhm. Oh wait! The Terroriser spot! If we can call Vanoss or Wildcat or his friend they can tell us where it is! Or at least-"
"On it", Weiss cut Delirious off. She pulled out her phone and saw Tyler's scroll was the only one online. She dialed the number but a loud screech sounded from her scroll.
"What the hell is that?", Weiss asked taking the phone away from her ear. It was loud enough for everyone to here. It sounded like an old fax machine being slowed down.
"Make it stop!", Ruby blocked her ears. Suddenly the screeching stopped and was replaced with a small dull static clicking noise.
"Ugh. Thanks Weiss", Ruby said removing her hands from the sides of her head.
"It wasn't me", Weiss told her team. Everyone looked to Weiss as she stared at her scroll in surprise. The clicking got louder as flares of static patched in and out. It didn't sound like a signal patching. It like a static shock repeated cracking across Weiss' scroll.
"OW!", Weiss dropped her scroll as an arc physically struck out from her scroll and hurt her hand. "What the… hell?", Weiss said looking at her hand. It left a scar in the form of burn mark, but in such an unusual pattern. It looked like a data storage structure of a code.
"Weiss why are there digital lines on your hand?", Blake asked. Weiss couldn't answer. Everyone's attention turned to Weiss' scroll.
*SNAP!*
The scroll cracked in the same pattern that was on Weiss' hand. Then the holographic screen went black before a red cursor appeared followed by occasional flashes of red static. The snapping sound continued at the same volume as her team and friends looked closely. They seemed to draw some attention from the bystanders watching the device arc out at it's owner.
"What is it doing?!", Yang asked as the phone kept arcing out. Suddenly, it stopped. It remained still and no arcs lashed out in random directions. The red cursor flashed on her screen as if waiting to type something. Suddenly the scroll gaze a buzz as if someone was calling it. The scroll lit up with hundreds of numbers per second. 0's and 1's flew by on the screen in random order in a malicious red color.
"Someone's hacking it!", Weiss grabbed the continuously buzzing scroll and tried to interface with it.
"Weiss wait!" Ruby said worried. The second Weiss touched the holographic screen picking it up the buzzing escalated into a sharp ring as the phone glowed a bright hot red. The 1's and 0's turned into lines of digital data filled the screen in random directions.
Weiss dropped the scroll as it burned her hand. "AH!", she screamed clutching her hand in pain. The device was now glowing such a bright red everyone shielded their eyes from the light. Suddenly an unclear voice entered through the phone.
"HELL***O? CAN YOU H*E*E*E*RE ME?", an unfamiliar voice came from the light.
"Who are you?! Where is Wildcat?", Weiss shouted at her not rebellious technology.
"HELLO! MY NAME IS MARCEL! WE NEED HELP! BUT PLE****EEE*E*E*A*A*SE! DO NOT PICK UP THE-"
"Hello?!", Ruby attempted to reach for the device.
"NO! DON"T TOUCH THE PHONE!", the voice screamed. Ruby was stunned and thrown back from a red arc of lightning striking the center of the scroll. Everyone shielded their eyes and face from but was struck anyway. The chain bolted to everyone with a scroll and then the flash was gone. Tiny red arcs trickled along their body, then suddenly all their scrolls struck out as well.
"AH!", everyone yelled in pain and threw their scroll out before it kept hurting them. The same thing happened to their scrolls as they filled with numbers.
"YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!", Marcell yelled. Everyone turned to where Weiss' scroll was previously to see a group of people come out of another red lightning strike. Three of them were Evan, Tyler and Brian.
Everyone turned back no longer hiding their eyes from light.
"Guys!", Delirious ran forward to greet his teammates.
"Stop!", Brian yelled from behind everyone.
"Everyone! Through your scrolls into the spot, RIGHT NOW!", he shouted.
"Why?", Nogla asked.
"Just do it! Before i-"
"It's too late!", A tiny monkey child yelled. Pointing to the sky they could see the red arcs shoot across the sky. They connected to the clouds and struck down everywhere across the sky.
"Oh shit. Oh god no! God fucking dammit!", Terroriser watched as it neared beacon. The main communication tower was struck and the sky turned a hazy gray. A crazy girlish laughter filled the sky.
"Alright, everyone weapons out!", someone shouted amongst the new people. This one had an 'M' on his shirt. Lightning continued to strike around the city at an incredible rate. Then it struck right back up where it had previously.
"What's happening?!", Ruby shouted. There was way too much going on.
"Dammit there's more of them?!", Weiss shouted looking at the odd new people.
"More of what?", The one who's voice they recognised. Weiss assumed that one was Marcel.
"WHY IS THERE SO MUCH LIGHTNING?!", Delirious shouted.
"Zombies!", Evan yelled.
Evan fired a bolt far off into the distance to see it stick a limp corpse far off in the distance with his bolt. It was too far away for anyone else to see clearly. It struck someone far across the giant spot in the ground way down the street.
"Evan are you insane?! You can't just-"
"Look!", Evan yelled at Weiss to cut her off. Weiss turned to look at what Evan was pointing at but stopped when she noticed her scroll. Lying on the ground amidst everyone was her scroll. And flashing slowly across the glitched holographic screen was - 115 in bright red numbers.
"EuAAghHGhAGh"
OKAY. Now, I know this was a long time away from its originally planned date. And I'm sorry about that. BUT!... It's here : ) I said I'd get it to you and, Tah Dah! It's here. Anyway, look! New characters! And yes I know some of the readers didn't want more then four main characters, and that's understandable. But the characters are all going to be TEMPORARY! Unless heavily suggested by the readers otherwise. Each character will have their own short arc in the story. The only reason I posted this story chapter first is because it took off faster. The other is almost done and should be finished in a couple days. And don't worry, I know zombies in stories get dull and boring after a while. But I plan to make it… pretty much just like you'd imagine them doing zombies. AND! Don't worry there will be more plot than just zombies. So, How do you like VIDH getting a little more dramatic? Like way too fast? Just like RWBY… not just a fun show anymore. So much drama. Sigh… Also, the intro's to the show are progressively getting worse. Now it's a too loud baseline with people half-singing when int the first few seasons the intro's were, well, not that. It's not bad, it's just bland. Just like drama. Yay. Anyway, the zombies are also temporary so don't worry about them taking over the story. I have a direction for this.
And to the guy who made the H2O Griffious joke. I liked it. So I put it in. Griffon is now Griffious. I'm trying to make him not take too much screen time either. Now, important note: I'm still looking for help :/
I am continuing with the story, but I really do need kind of a second voice on these things. I have a direction to move, I just need a way to implement the ideas into them. I'm not good with being creative it seems. Writer's block! UGH! Anyway, see ya.
Also I ran some grammar and spelling software across this and I second checked it myself. Hopefully it proved useful. If anything I may have to fix a few errors across 11k words. But hey, whatever.
-Dust