Disclaimer: All characters and concepts belong to their respective owners.
Hello and ready for a bonus? Not only is it kind of a small Thanksgiving special deal but also the start of something experimental.
It's what I call Infinity Crisis Addendum. Basically, very super short stories that can be about anything in the Infinity Crisis multiverse. Whether it'd be small world building or something funny or anything you couldn't fit into your story.
It's not so much one shots at just like I said, very short stories. And I have another in mind but this one is the start of it.
Hope you enjoy!
Earth-021918
It was on a Friday before Thanksgiving break began for the children of Herkleton. The fall season had begun for a few months already with brown leaves around the creek.
As various children either still played in the creek or ran home after school, one child in particular had hid in an isolated location near a tree.
A girl with brown skin and black hair wearing a teddy bear as a mask, a red and white striped shirt, black pants and a grass skirt, even wearing no shoes entirely, she sobbed over an earlier incident.
Vanessa, or rather Wildernessa as she preferred to be referred to as, had an encounter with bullies after being misled they had wanted to hamster care tips-which resulted in one of the bullies pulling her chair from behind during lunch.
The incident causes to spill food all over her and instantly, she reacted. Violently punching, thrashing and mauling every bully who wronged her that day. But for other students, it earned her the nickname Maul-Ly.
From that to the principal's office confronting her over the incident, which the principal refused to her side of the story, she ran off crying and ran toward the creek.
She had cried for an hour, feeling shame throughout. Pondering what her mom would say.
That was, until she saw the shadow of someone familiar.
"Cheese Sticks!" She cried out with her tears still pouring from her eyes.
The dog whined in concern as he rubbed his head around her cheek in sympathy.
"I'll be okay." Wildernessa patted her dog friend on the top of his head with a small smile. "I'll get through it."
Suddenly, she noticed Cheese Sticks was sniffing the tree curiously. Specifically around the hole inside.
"What is it, boy?" Asked Wildernessa. "What do you see?"
She went up to the tree and reached inside through the hole.
To her surprise, she pulled out a glowing blue crystal of sorts.
"What's this?" She asked herself as she examined the crystal-borderline entranced by the object.
From behind, a frog landed on a rock and then croaked.
The noise startled Wildernessa. She yelped in a fright that snapped her out of her trance and dropped the crystal.
The crystal Shattered and emitted a strange mist as a result.
Wildernessa froze in fear as the mist engulfed her, despite making an attempt to run. But as the mist cleared, in her place was a cocoon statue. Cheese Sticks sniffed and whined out of worry. So much so, he sat next to her-waiting for something to happen.
It had been an hour. Long enough for a small group of animals to gather around the mysterious cocoon like object.
Suddenly, the cocoon began to crack like a broken statue.
Finally, it shattered and out came Wildernessa. She dropped to the ground face first. She sat up and stretched her arms enough that swore she heard a crack.
The girl then examined herself and frisked her own body.
"I'm normal." Wildernessa said out of relief. "I don't have…I don't know, pincers? Fangs?"
"What happened to me?" She then asked herself as she looked at her normal hands.
"You okay?"
Wildernessa turned around to see who was talking to her. She heard a voice that sounded like a surfer accent.
There was no one behind her.
"Yo, dudette!" She heard the voice again. "Down here!"
To her shock upon looking down, Wildernessa noticed a frog. And it was talking to her.
"You seemed out of it for a moment." The frog said.
"Oh deary, we are so glad you're alright!"
She then turned to see three cats in front of her speaking in plain English. A female feral black cat, a gray female calico cat and a female orange tabby. All three spoke with English accents as if they were Mary Poppins.
"We were awfully concerned." The black cat said.
"You look a little peckish though." The gray calico cat chimed in.
"I think she just hasn't had enough sleep." The female orange tabby remarked.
Wildernessa was growing more and more shocked, the more the animals talked. Then she felt someone nuzzling her arm. She glanced down to see a small fawn nuzzling her.
"Have you seen my mom?" The fawn asked with the voice of a little boy.
Wildernessa gave off a shocked yell and fell onto the ground.
She prided herself as a friend of nature and claimed to have understood animals. But never in this manner. She found it hard to process. She wondered if this was the result of that crystal that shattered.
"Van…ness…a?"
Her train of thought ended up being interrupted by a new voice.
She turned to see her dog Cheese Sticks beside her. And speaking.
"Are you okay?" He asked clearly.
A moment of silence ran throughout for a moment, shocked more than the other animals that her own dog was talking to her.
"You…" Wildernessa spoke, finally breaking the silence. "You can…understand me?"
"Yes." Cheese Sticks said simply.
Wildernessa smiled as tears formed around her eyes. Not of sadness this time, but of happiness.
With no hesitation, she hugged her dog tightly around his neck. Cheese Sticks understood the action and nuzzle around her cheek.
"I can understand you!!!" Wildernessa exclaimed happily. "I can understand you!"
"And you understand me!" Wildernessa then said as she continued to cry out of joy.
Wildernessa now considered this the day of her true birth as her right of being a friend of nature. The embrace was short lived however as to her shock, she saw a turkey running around who wore an orange hood and cloak with pumpkin bombs-laughing like mad.
He froze as he saw the two, both of them staring at each other awkwardly and then immediately, he campered off-making gobble noises along the way.
"You can't catch the Hobgobbler!" It screeched.
The two glanced at each other in confusion.
"Let's ride, Cheese Sticks!" Wildernessa said as she got on her dog's back.
And with that, the two rode off in hot pursuit of the turkey creature.
A few feet away however, she and Cheese Sticks were being watched.
Afar from another tree, an astonished pre teen girl with long red hair, wearing a sleeveless purple dress with shoes to match the color, along with gray armbands and a waist guard, watched the girl hug her dog with curiosity since the moment the crystal was shattered.
"So she's one of us." The girl whispered to herself.
Author's Notes:
- This had been on my mind for close to a year or two but I couldn't put it anywhere. But the idea started out as a headcanon where the dog Cheese Sticks could be related to Lockjaw.
Naturally, I took it a step further and thought of this.
And originally, I pitched it to Ben2Dartmouth for an idea of his, he turned it down. Then I thought about it for New Discoveries, didn't work out and given what I wrote, it would have been too long and that one shot was long as it is already.
Until finally when I thought of the Addendum series, I decided this one should get that treatment. In this instance, give Earth-021918 a little more world building. Especially given that one will be Marvel influenced, the presence of Sparkle Cadet aside.
Don't want to give too much away but I will say I can confirm Mutants, Inhumans and Eternals exist there. But others? You're gonna have to wait and see.
- And speaking of Inhumans, Medusa is based on her look from Inhumans: Once and Future Kings where that story had younger versions of the Inhuman royal family and her age is similar here.
- Tiny note is the calico cat is based on Ash, owned by the couple I live with currently. The cat is male in actuality but still.
- I couldn't resist making a Bambi reference.
- The incident in question references to a rant by Wildernessa in the Craig of the Creek episode Breaking The Ice right down to what incited her to beat up her bullies and get called Maul-Ly. If it doesn't make sense she's called that, trust me, she acknowledges that.
- And technically, this the second Addendum I wrote as the first one, it's a bit of a surprise and you'll find out soon.
- Hobgobbler was technically a joke from my friend Ben2Dartmouth when originally I had in mind that she'd free the turkeys as a gag. But I respected the deep cut he made so much considering he's from Spider-Ham, screw it. Why not? And I wanted to hammer in a bit the Thanksgiving theme anyway.
And that's all the behind the scenes info I have and hope you enjoyed this one and want to see more Addendum stuff.
See ya soon! And Happy Thanksgiving!