The blurred blues of the sky almost formed these weird rings that outlined the Hub like an attention grabbing circle. It made the whole world have this air of sadness, the shadows of what could've been casted far. We were blanketed in the dark, the sunless sky feeling cold.
"Gladius…" I began as we all walked, the Hub still a distance away. "I was thinking… If these universes weren't scrapped, would that mean all of us could have met another way?"
"Most likely", the sword mused. "But then we wouldn't have gone on this adventure. So consider it a double edged sword."
"Ironic", Majima said aloud. This made Gladius huff and everyone start laughing, the noise echoing off the hollow walls. Honestly, I'd take what we could get, considering we were in a dying world.
The walk mostly devolved into a calm silence, but I couldn't shake the feeling from earlier. Subconsciously, I looked over my shoulder. Nothing but an empty street, so I just shrugged and faced forward again.
"Something on your mind Caleb?" Hilda asked as she walked up next to me. Twig was skipping carefully next to her, while Alfur sat on her beret.
I nodded. "Just thinking. And taking in the sights of this place. Yeah, it's terrifying, but as an artist, it can be inspiring."
That caught the attention of the others. "You're an artist?" Manolo asked in surprise.
"Yes, I am", I said proudly. "I draw any chance I get. But considering the current circumstances, I haven't been able to. Hopefully when we get back, I'll finally get to work on some projects."
"That would be great!" Hilda cheered. "Me and you could maybe do some sketching after all of this is over!"
I nodded for the second time. "My thoughts exactly, Hilda!"
"My question is… when we get you back…", Laney began, "What's going to happen with the rest of us? Will Rainbow and the others boot us out, or let us stay?"
That made everyone pause, then look at me blankly. I shook my head and shrugged, but Gladius let out a sigh.
"I'll be honest", he began, "It's hard to say. Rainbow, ever since the Vortex, has become increasingly jumpy when it comes to people visiting other universes aside from the Capital, so when she hears what we've all done, especially when it comes to this place", he gestured to the ruined buildings around us, "she'll probably faint out of pure terror."
Most of us winced, while Dry let out a low whistle. "Well, that'll be a fun bridge to cross when we reach it. I'm ready to be obliterated by four angry gods."
"I don't think they'd go that drastic, Dry", Maria chided. She walked up to me and wrapped me in a one armed hug. "Caleb will be able to explain things, so I'm sure we'll be fine."
"But then where will we stay if we aren't kicked out?" McGee asked.
"The hallway Caleb's room is attached to", Gladius explained, "Has bedrooms and nothing else. All of them are guest bedrooms that haven't been used in years, but are consistently maintained. Unless for the 50 years I was locked up in the storage room, those four punks became pigs and let the rooms fall into disarray."
Ralph snorted as Vanellope broke into a fit of giggles on his shoulder. I rolled my eyes with a smile as the others all started to quietly laugh, only for everyone to shut up when another quake rumbled beneath our feet. A building behind us, and not too far at that, was knocked over and crashed onto the road, blocking our way back.
We all stared silently at the wreckage, only to glare at a giggling Izzy. "Wow, we were all nearly pancakes. Or should I say… roadkill?"
We all groaned at her attempted joke and went to continue down the road. But as soon as I took a single step, some rusted trash cans were knocked over in an alleyway near us.
We all jumped and spun towards the source of the noise, weapons drawn and aimed. But after a few seconds of nothing, we all relaxed and started marching forward again. That little bout silenced us, as we suddenly became more aware of our surroundings. But after a few more minutes of walking, we returned to our sense of normalcy.
I noticed Galacta was hovering just fine, but his wings were still singed, so I decided to walk up and ask him.
"Hey Galacta", I began. "So, how are your wings doing?"
He sighed. "That blast of lightning made me lose all feeling in them. So while I can hover, I won't be able to fly again till I seek medical attention."
"So you can feel your wings?" I repeated in horror. "God, that must be scary."
The knight was silent for a moment. "In a way, yes it is. But I'd rather be like this with no feeling in my wings than trapped in a crystal prison for millennia."
I nodded sombrely, and put my hand on his head. He didn't complain about it, and to my surprise, he was able to hover up higher so he could hold onto my head, riding me in his best attempt at a piggyback possible.
"Trying to let your inner kid shine through?" I asked cheekily.
"No", he said firmly. "I just sense something is wrong. We're being followed, I can tell that much. But I can't tell by what…" He looked back, his eyes glowing as he glared.
This made me and a couple of the others look back, worry etched on our faces.
"How long?" Majima growled.
"Since we crossed the chasm. I have a feeling they were the one who knocked over those trash cans."
Amy looked up at Gladius. "Do you think someone could've been left behind here?"
The sword froze, and I immediately knew that was a bad sign. "We need to move, now." He continued on his way, this time more rigidly.
We all shared looks of worry, and ran to catch up with him.
"Gladius!" Rory called. "What, is there something here? You know if you told us we wouldn't be so worried!"
"Even if I tell you nothing will change. We need to get to the Hub now!"
"Just tell us, you over-sized letter opener!" Star roared. "If it's dangerous, we need to be prepared!"
The sword stopped and sighed, then continued along much slower. "Remember how I told all of you how universes work? How they make some of the species more wild as a form of defence against invasive elements?"
We all nodded, so he continued. "Well, this Convergence Universe is considered a 'newborn', where it doesn't have any identity yet. Because of that, it will instead manifest the most hostile beings from all of your memories. Those you battled with created and spawned endlessly."
That made us all pale. "I'm sorry, what?" Zomboss squeaked out fearfully.
"If we don't get to the Hub and leave as soon as we can, we will be overrun with an endless swarm of Daleks, Trolls, Yakuza Thugs, Cybugs, and everything else all of you have fought."
We were all dead silent.
Only Majima had something to say. "Holy. Shit."
"Okay, yeah, let's get going!" Jenny quickly said. No one argued, and we all began to make our way to the Hub at a faster pace.
But we all froze when Galacta quickly pulled Ruby and Iris out of the way, a fired bullet whizzing past and hitting a lamppost. We all stared at the bullet hole with wide eyes, before snapping to the source.
Before us, holding a smoking gun, was Jo Amon from Kamurocho. He was completely emotionless as he put his gun away and pulled out the two light-swords from when Ralph faced him in the tournament at Purgatory.
"No fucking way", Majima snarled in disbelief. He pulled out his bat and pointed it at the man. "So you're here now, huh? Then bring… it… on…" Our yakuza trailed off as two Cybermen and a Troll from Trolberg moved out of the shadows. They had blue highlights all over their body, and vacant expressions that made my skin crawl.
"We need to run. Now." Maria took my hand as we all made a break for it, the four imitations chasing after us. I could hear their furious stomping approaching quickly, and it made my heart scream.
So, in a desperate bid to help us eliminate some stress, I broke free of Maria's grasp and sprinted over to Jenny. She cried out in shock as I spun her around and used her arm cannons to blast a nearby building. When it was significantly damaged enough, it collapsed onto our four pursuers.
"That won't hold them for long", I said quickly. "We need to go now. C'mon!" I ran towards a nearby subway entrance, and the others all made a move to follow. As I entered the barren, desolate underground, I took a deep breath. That was a big mistake, as the musky air made me hack and cough.
"Okay, so we're in a dirty subway, now what?" Vanellope spat as Manolo tried to help me stop coughing.
"I was - *ack* - desperate!" I complained. Jenny came over and transformed her arm into the mouthpiece of an oxygen mask, and from her back emerged an oxygen tank.
I took a deep breath of the fresh air, and felt better instantly.
"Thanks Jen…" I said weakly, leaning against Manolo for support. "Sorry about running in here, I just felt like it was the best thing to do."
"It's alright Caleb!" Dry Bowser called out. We all looked over at him, who had somehow walked over to the other side of the tracks and was peeking through an open door. "This heads to what looks like a sewer system. We could use this to try and slip by without being noticed by the freaks above."
We all turned towards the entrance that we came down, hearing the sound of marching, stomping and growling up above. With no better option, we crossed over the rusted train tracks and entered the door Dry held open for us. Maple scurried onto my shoulder, as the hallway was fairly cramped.
But we didn't let that stop us as we pressed on.
~X~
The sewers were, surprisingly, dry as a bone and didn't stink. All that there was were damaged pipes, worn from age and rust, and cracked cement walls. There was one gap we had to carefully shimmy past, else we'd fall into the singularity we were trying to escape from. It was tense, but soon enough we reached a part of the sewer where the road above caved in, giving us a ramp to the surface.
Majima, Jenny and the Powerpuffs investigated the surrounding area, and when we were given the all clear, we followed them.
I was filled with hope seeing how much closer we were to the Hub/ but that hope deflated when I saw we had a long distance to go to the bridge that connected our destination with the rest of the crumbling planet. Gladius took the lead as we marched onward, the distant sounds of destruction hitting my ears.
"These things sound really mad…" McGee whispered fearfully.
"What do you think is hunting us down?" Merida asked no one in particular.
"MONSTER!" Izzy screamed as she ran away suddenly. We all watched her in flabbergasted silence, before a loud, thunderous footstep made us freeze. Slowly turning around, we saw the Movie Lot Monster, eyes hollow and mouth twisted into a vicious smile that lacked life.
"Oh you've got to be kidding!" Steve screamed. We took that as our cue to just run, dashing away as the Monster let out a roar and started to chase us.
"Out of all the things we fought, it had to be the giant robot!" Marco yelled.
"Should I get the Zombot out?" Zomboss asked loudly.
"It won't do anything!" Gladius cried. "These things will just keep coming, and if we fight back it'll only make things worse! We just need to get to the Hub now, or we'll be overrun!"
"What do you think we're doing?!" Maria screamed. She dashed ahead surprisingly fast considering her dress, with Manolo right behind her. The rest of us ran with all our might, the Psycho Hose Beast heading to turn down one road, only to turn down another.
When we reached the intersection and saw the army of Cybugs and Gargantuars, we all cried out in horror and ran after Izzy. I could hear the Movie Lot Monster unleash a powerful blast of fire in our general direction, luckily missing by a huge margin. That margin, however, didn't include the multitude of buildings we were next to, which meant they were knocked over.
We luckily weren't crushed, and used the ensuing wreckage and smoke to make our escape into a building that looked like a museum of some kind. We ran deep inside the building so we were away from all the windows.
With the danger past, we all collectively let out a sigh of relief.
"This is crazy!" Bubbles cried. "How are we supposed to get out of here with all of this stuff trying to get us!"
"We'll need to be sneaky…" Laney suggested. "I say we try to sneak through the buildings. Take back doors and stuff."
"With all of us?" Ralph said in shock. "Lanes, your idea could work if there were four of us. But right now, there's 35. We aren't slipping by without being noticed."
"But maybe we can!" I said, eyes sparkling with an idea. "We just need to take the sewers like before. But , so we don't get lost, we need to plant a marker of sorts on the Hub…"
That was when Steve pulled out his compass. "I have this. It's not working, but maybe… Doc, can you mess with this?"
The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver, and blinked it at the crafter's device. After a few seconds, the compass needle was aiming in one direction.
"Let's see if it's pointing at the Hub", I suggested.
As carefully as we could, we snuck out the back of the building (passing by some very bizarre art sculptures in the process), and we all grouped up on a road that had a clear shot towards the Hub. We all looked at Steve's compass, and even after he shifted around, the needle stayed pointing at our destination.
"Perfect!" Blossom called out.
There was a roar, and we all scrambled down into a nearby subway entrance. With our destination set, we decided to follow Steve's lead as we walked along the underground railroad. The train tracks would make me cold just looking at it, so I stuck close to Maria and Manolo to try and keep warm.
The walk was quiet, except for the roars and angry grunts we heard above our heads.
"We need to get to the Hub soon", Gladius said. "It's a pocket dimension, so these imitations will hopefully back off."
"So that's why it's so important to get there", Star joked. No one laughed, which made the Mewman laugh sheepishly in embarrassment.
"Well, the front door has an emergency locking system in case this sort of thing happens", the sword elaborated. "So we'll have a buffer if these creatures are particularly relentless."
"So I'm assuming this is a common occurrence?" Flowey asked.
"Not really, but there were rumours that spread amongst castle staff after the plans for these universes were scrapped, special task forces were sent out to do clean up and to make sure nothing important would be lost." He paused for dramatic effect. "But, they never came back. But again, it was just a rumour."
"Well that's reassuring…" Amy mumbled sarcastically.
After that little ominous warning, we continued down the tunnel, only Jenny and Scrap Baby's eyes offering light in the dark abyss.
~X~
The subway tunnel's darkness was getting to me by the fifth hour, so I nearly screamed out in relief when we finally reached an exit. Majima took the lead and climbed the ladder, opening the maintenance manhole and poking his head out. We were quick to climb the rest of the way up and help the rest of us to the surface. Scrap Baby needed help from the Powerpuffs, which she was glad about. Looking around our surroundings, it was clear we were in a… wait.
Oh my god.
"WE WENT IN A FUCKING CIRCLE!" I screamed in rage and terror filled realisation.
The others all jumped, but then took in the surroundings. With outraged cries, we all glared at the very statue we passed when we left this museum all that time ago.
"How in the actual heck did this happen?!" Buttercup snarled.
"But… we just… HUH?!" Ruby stammered in disbelief.
"This is actually so bad", Zomboss groaned.
"You think?!" Merida roared. "We did a lap on a planet that's trying to kill us!"
"Everyone!" Gladius called out. We all calmed down, but still had dark glares etched on our faces as we faced the sword. "I understand this is awful, but with our trip in the subway it means this street is clear. So now let's continue on our original path."
We all nodded, muttering bitterly as we headed outside. But as soon as we saw the imprints of massive feet, and distant stomps, we knew we shouldn't stick around. So with all our anger melting, we went straight towards the Hub.
We were dead silent as we walked, trying to be fast but discreet. It seemed to be working so far, but then we heard the loud and plentiful footsteps approaching. So, thinking fast, I quietly gestured to everyone to run.
And run we did. With all our might, we all ran as the sounds of cracking metal and shattering glass hit my ears. We turned down a road, and were now heading straight towards the Hub.
Just as the towering figure of ARMAGEDROID rolled in front of us. He picked up the upper chunk of a nearby building and threw it right at us.
We all cried out and dove out of the way, which inadvertently split our group in two. My group looked at the others across the street, but we were scared off when Peashooter and Dalek fire whizzed past. I gestured to the others to just run, and they did just that.
My group, consisting of Gladius, Ralph, Vanellope, Jenny, Maple, Twig, The Doctor, Corey, Maria, Gretchen, Dry Bowser, Flowey and Scrap Baby, ran down the alley we found ourselves in. With the sounds of the army behind us approaching fast, we all rushed into a building.
Ralph quickly threw a nearby bookshelf against the door to keep our pursuers at bay, but one clean blast blew the whole door into splinters. The wrecker quickly picked me up as we all ran down the hall, desperate to try and escape.
Looking over my shoulder as we turned a corner, I watched as Dry and Jenny stayed back to unleash hell on the imitations before quickly joining us. I thought that was the peak of it, but turning around, I saw the vacant look of the Movie Lot Monster staring us down through a wall of windows.
It began to charge up a fire blast, so the group quickly headed left as the blast of fire ripped through the building. It began to follow us, so Ralph did something extremely reckless. With a ferocious battle cry he barreled through the wall, shielding me from the debris as we all jumped from one building to the next.
This seemed to throw our pursuers off enough so they didn't follow us. Even the Monster was left surprised (or I thought so, despite his expression never changing).
We ran down a hallway to the stairs, and Ralph decided to just jump down the centre. With a thud and leaving a crater behind, he readjusted me, Vanellope and Maple on his shoulders. In this time, Jenny had landed next to him and blew the back wall out, giving us an easy escape route.
We continued to run more and more, before finally making it to a building that was on a street that was on the road that went to the front of the Hub.
With a tired sigh, I collapsed on the ground as soon as Ralph set me down.
"That was too close…" I breathed out.
The Doctor used his screwdriver to scan the surroundings outside. "No sign of the others, but I can see they are okay and not far."
"That's good", Scrap Baby said. "But I seriously need a break. I feel like I'm going to wear out my joints with all this skating…"
"We can't stop", Gladius said firmly. "These constructs are using up more of the universe's energy. The longer we're here, the more constructs are made, and the faster this place dies. We need to keep moving."
"Well, it looks like we don't need to find the others", Dry Bowser said aloud. We all watched as the other half of our party barged in, exhausted and wide-eyed.
"It's bloody armageddon out there!" Merida cried.
"More of a reason for us to move", Maria said.
"Uhhhh… guys?" McGee's fearful voice ran out. We all turned around and saw he was looking into another room, clearly fearful of something based on how stiff he went.
I walked over to him, confused. "What? What's wrong?" I looked into the room, and my heart stopped…
~X~
Leaving you all on a cliffhanger! Hey I have to stretch this arc out in some way, and this is the best way I can think of. I can't have the group arms length from the Hub, or it'll get boring.
But yeah, the Convergence Universe is starting to go crazy. I wanted some sort of danger, and this was on my mind for a long time. It works, and helps bring back stuff from the past arcs in a reasonable way.
Hope you all enjoyed this shorter, more simple chapter!
Up next: The group witnesses the true savagery of these imitations, and work together to devise a plan to get them to the Hub as fast and safely as possible…
~Caleb~