Disclaimer: See first chapter.

The House On the Hill

The hill was unfortunately surprisingly tough to climb up. The stream made it look easy, casually flowing in broken waterfalls. Where the water actually came from, Whisper wasn't sure.

Fences were all over the place, mostly electric which powered up Cyan some more, although she really didn't need it. Rocks in troublesome places that Blue had to make cubes to let her climb up. And with each step, she had to avoid the water to make sure none of it splashed on her. She wasn't sure how much was needed to cause the effects seen in Spiral Hill, but she doubted it was much.

Green always made sure to stick around, just in case she fell. It was a good thing too, Whisper reasoned, as her boot slipped from some grass that she was mostly sure hadn't existed two seconds prior, and almost fell fifteen feet. Green caught her, making sure that she floated down safely, before she had to jump onto another of Blue's cubes.

The entire hill was a giant puzzle, that she needed to solve step by step. Cyan to de-power the fences, Orange to see if anything was coming and to keep general observation, Blue for his cubes to help her get up to the more dangerous areas, Green to make sure she didn't fall, and Pink, to help make her stick to the wall.

The hill was surprisingly rough, closer to a cliff face more than anything. The purple water came down in several small waterfalls, leaving most of the rocks bare. A few tough weeds and flowers dotted the sides, but Whisper knew that it wouldn't be long before she reached the top.

Almost as if she was psychic, the top of the hill reached out to her. "Alright, you made it," Orange whispered. Why she was whispering, Whisper didn't know. The only ones that had translators were old Restoration members. Although hadn't someone mentioned to her that they were getting more common?

"Why are we whispering?" Cyan asked, hovering close by Orange's...head. The orange wisp spun around, small rocket jets coming from her arms.

"Quiet," Whisper chided softly. Orange followed up with a constant line of 'shush!' every time Cyan thought about talking.

The top was almost a plateau, if she had to be honest. Spiral Hill wasn't surrounded by mountains, but it had a few off in the distance. Major rivers probably came from there, but a small creek the size of Mill Creek...these must be the mills, Whisper knew.

A large fence towered over her, with 'Private Property, No Trespassing!' signs hung up every feet. By Cyan's interest in it, it was probably electrified. Beyond the fence was an old building, an old mill of some type with ancient saw blades that were probably turned off even in her time. The metal wasn't creaking, but that was mostly because it was gone.

But then if these were abandoned, why was the fence still electrified? Whisper wasn't sure, and she gave a small nod to Cyan who dove in with glee, taking in the energy she could. "Sometimes I worry about her..." Blue muttered.

"I don't! That must be fun! Think of the kinds of things we could do!" Pink exclaimed happily. Whisper made sure to keep an eye on him if only so that way he didn't dive into an electrified fence and get himself hurt.

"That's kind of my point..."

She tested the fence gently with a stick, making sure it wasn't in her hands when the stick touched the metal. It bounced off anti-climatically, so it was probably safe. The top had barbed wire covering most of it, focusing outwards. They really wanted to keep people out, didn't they? Signs, fences, the only thing missing were guard dogs.

Blue, and bash her way through, or Green, and hover her way over? Blue was probably safest, and would open up an easy way out if she needed one. "Blue?" she asked kindly. The blue wisp gave a little chirp before he went into the fence and created a Whisper sized cube.

Normally Blue's cubes were only mostly solid, or a few inches on the surface at best. He could only create one true geometric shape, but if he had a lot of energy he could do all kinds of crazy things.

Such as creating a cube in a fence and essentially forcing the fence out of shape through the cube. "I was planning on using the hammer," Whisper admitted as Blue let the cube go with a sigh of relief, the fence having now a giant Whisper-sized hole in it. It used a lot more energy to create a solid shape like what he just did. She still had to bend down a bit, but that was because she didn't want to get poked.

The mill had water, but there was no one around, nor had anyone been around for years it seemed like. The starlight gave everything an ominous glow, especially without the moon. "Violet?" Whisper asked as she touched her radio. Best to test this now.

"I," static cut through. "you. Wh-" more static, "-per?" Even in the parts that she could understand, Violet's voice was static and hard to hear. "-You?"

Whisper assumed that was "Where are you", and decided to say. "Mills. I repeat, the mills. Heading to the further areas and following the creek."

"-That. Rad-" static. "-rking."

Copy that, radio not working. "Understood. Radio silence," Whisper said. There was one method that she could use to burst a message through, but it would drain Cyan of her power.

"Wow look at some of these things..." Pink murmured as he flew next to one of the rust-ridden saw blades. He touched one with one of his spikes, his eyes widening as he imbued it.

"Making a mockery of the hedgehogs, Pink?" Orange asked with only a small sense of sarcasm, the pink wisp now moving across the fields on the imbued saw blade. It bit into the dirt, creating a rise behind it as it went. He was actually going kind of fast, truthfully.

The pink-ified saw blade came back around, running into the unmaintained wooden parts of the mills, sawing through them as if it were a hot knife through butter. "Always! Seriously, this is awesome! Can I keep a saw blade with me, Whisper!? Think of how awesome I'd be!"

That was a plan that would only lead to disaster, and a plan that she would have to shut down instantly. "Maybe," she acquiesced. Pink let out a loud whoop as a plank of wood fell on top of him, dis-imbueing him out of the saw blade.

There were no old piles of wood here that had been cut, although the waterwheel was still turning. Most of it must have been taken away long ago, as Whisper couldn't find indents of where it would have been. But if these were long abandoned, where did the power come from?

"Cyan...question. Could you follow the fence to its battery?" Whisper asked as she jumped over a few broken saw blades. They'd been left in a bunch of rows, the blades pointed up. Horrible way to just leave them be.

"Uh...probably? I didn't really try though, I was more focused on just draining energy from it. By the way, I'm a laser!" Cyan said energetically, talking fast enough that even Whisper's translator could barely keep up.

That was fair. The mill property went for a distance, around a mile if Whisper had her distances right. Beyond that, she could see the Mill Creek and it's odd purple glowing bit as it rounded the turn, leading to a large house on top of the hill.

"That's where we're going, right?" Orange asked, hovering next to Whisper. "Because, I'll be honest, that place is terrifying."

"Ooh, that'll be neat!" Cyan.

"This isn't the movies. It looks like one though, I want to say they used in 'Night of the Living'. You remember that one, right Whisper?" Green asked.

Yes, yes she did. "At least they didn't make a Metal Virus one," she murmured. The five wisps shuddered at the same time. That one had probably been off the table instantly if it was brought up. But it had been twenty three, almost twenty four years. The fact they hadn't was kind of surprising, more than anything.

There was another large fence in the way, although this one had no electricity, and Whisper could actually see a gate that led to the road to the house. Was the owner there an owner of the mill, as well? Cautious, she undid the latch and walked on through, ignoring the way that the metal didn't screech.

Which meant it had been maintained. There was no rust on its hinges, and the fence was, now that she took a better look, had also been maintained or at least recently changed out

She kept to the side of the road, making sure that she would be able to hear if there was anyone coming or if anyone was looking out the window. It was still early in the evening though, but there were no lights on.

She followed the creek as it went up, turning through the house's water wheel. On the other side of the house the creek flowed from the mountains, clear as day.

The house was a mansion rather than just a house. Two large wings spread out the middle, the entire thing placed by the creek. There was a large iron tower on the south side, where the waterwheel was, and Whisper almost felt like something was...strange, about it.

The fact that the wisps had gone silent, staring at it with furrowed brows spoke volumes. She was right to not ignore her instincts in this case. "Keep quiet. Stick to the shadows," Whisper commanded. The wisps decided to ignore her commands by instead going in their canisters, letting her do the hiding for them. "Or, that works, I guess."

There were no lights on, nor were there any vehicles in the driveway. Whisper wasn't sure about any floodlights or cameras, just because she didn't see them didn't mean they weren't there. There was no fence line either, except for the one at the mill. Did the road go around the mills, leading to and from Spiral Hill? She was quite a few miles away now from the village proper. This was, if anything, the outskirts.

The purple water ended in the large waterwheel, constantly turning. On the other side, Whisper saw it turned clear completely. The wheel wasn't adding anything, Whisper could tell, as it was more of a gradual change than anything. Something in the soil here polluted the water as it went by this place? But the change was also quicker than that.

No...it was when it went by the iron tower. The water looked hazy as it started to go by it, but it only started glowing with the purple light as it came closer, turning into the stuff that was in Spiral Hill only after it had left.

So something in the tower was causing it. But there was no obvious way in, Whisper could tell. There was no doorway, except for the path connected to the house. So she'd have to break in to an empty mansion to find the right area.

"Hope they don't have alarms..." she murmured as she broke a window on the first floor. There were no lights on, and Whisper doubted that anyone was here. The entire place was silent, and despite the mansion-like appearance it was also more...industrial.

Maybe a factory of some kind? It did something with the mill down the road, hence both places connected to it? It would explain why this place was empty at this time of night.

An alarm blared loudly, the first sign of light and sound that Whisper had heard since they dropped into Spiral Hill. "Of course," she said aloud as she ducked into the shadow of a...couch.

This was a living room, or at least some kind of study or meeting area. A foyer? Had to be, no other place would have this nice stuff on it.

And the room was nice. Chairs by the dozen, all of them seeming as if the cushioning on them would just let anyone sink into them. Nicely carved wood, rather than the industrial looking outside, sat around. She was standing on carpet, with a small hearth by the side.

Dozens of heads of Islanders were stuff on the wall, hanging lightly. They shone red in the alarm light, giving them an accusatory glare towards her, as if daring her to make excuses for not saving them.

Her ears perked as she heard footsteps outside the door. Light, yet heavy. Carrying something, leaning forward. Whisper dove behind the couch, the variable wispon already out and lined up with the door.

The door burst open as a human kicked it in, a crazed glare in his eyes made worse by the alarm. "Oi don't you all fellas get knickknacked by the pattywhacka!" he yelled and screamed, holding the shotgun level.

Whisper had talked to Marine, at one point when Blaze was around. The accent was similar to that, as was the understandability. Whatever it was he'd said, she couldn't understand him.

The human glared around, before smashing his fist onto the alarm to get it to stop. He turned on the light a moment later, and Whisper withdrew behind the couch more. She turned off the night-vision on the mask, allowing color back into her world. He was a tall man, with an obvious hanging tooth from the roof of his mouth. He had half a mustache that curled around his head, almost like half a beard except it didn't go below his chin. He was stringlike, puppetlike, except nothing like Belle.

"You sink youse can hides from me!? Me wee pattywhacka gon whacka whacka you!" he shouted suddenly, turning his shotgun to a chair. He fired once, and Whisper ignored the sense to cover her ears. That was loud!

And the chair was no more, having been almost vaporized in the blast. If he turned that towards the couch, no amount of hiding behind it would be enough.

"Youse not behinds me chairs...Yes...but I'll finds youse. I gon whacka you..." he stumbled over his words as he slowly stepped into the room. "Youse gets one more chances before me pattywhacka gon play..."

Wonderful. Was he talking to her, or trying to talk to the gun? She'd never talked to the variable wispon before...although that didn't stop people from thinking she did. It was a tool, not alive. If he moved beyond the couch, she'd strike.

The room wasn't that big, in hindsight. There weren't 'dozens' of chairs, but rather four in a circle, with a couch on the side.

He'd left the door open, too, Whisper realized. She reached behind her, hoping to find something hard that she could use to create noise. "Come on out, I juss wants to play...I likes pattywhacka. And me pattywhacka likes whacka whacking yous," he stumbled over the words again, his bare feet close by the couch now.

If he turned, he'd see her, right there. He stepped out behind the couch, looking well over where she was.

She stepped up, tripping him easily with the variable wispon. In the same movement she grabbed the shotgun by its two barrels, no wonder it was so loud, and brought it up far away from her face and body.

"Fucks!?" he yelled as he dropped to the floor, his fingers automatically hitting the trigger. It blew a hole up in the ceiling, and Whisper brought her boot down on his hands, forcing him to let go. The shotgun was a decent one, but she greatly preferred her wispon.

She leveled it at him, turning on the safety instantly. She doubted he kept extra ammunition in it. "Whose whoase hey now there, keep calm puppy..." he stuttered, backing up against the chair close to him. He was nude. Whisper kept the thoughts to herself, and glad the wisps weren't saying anything. "You don'ts needs to whacka whacka me..." he stuttered off.

He wasn't young, middle aged if anything, and he had a gaunt look around his face too. But unlike from starvation or depression as it was down in Spiral Hill, he just seemed to be hooked on some kind of drug. His hair had fallen out, leaving him bald except for a few brown hairs scattered around. It almost looked as if he'd tried to shave it all off at one point, but had stopped halfway.

"Who are you?" Whisper asked.

"Me? Littles olds mes? I'm just...the pattywhacka champion!" he yelled out, suddenly diving at her to get the shotgun back. Whisper flashed the butt of the gun at his head, throwing him to the ground faster than he could blink.

His back hit the coffee table, and his feet scratched at the carpet. "Who are you?" Whisper repeated. "Do you have anything with Spiral Hill?"

"No! I wouldn't wants anything to do with a place like that! They scare me, downs there. They comes up here, begging for foods, for waters, but all I wanna do is stay here with mah pattywhacka and play..."

Whisper glanced around at the various islander heads laced around the room. "Blue. Crush it," Whisper commanded. Instantly Blue was in the room, taking in the sight of the scared man and the human made shotgun in Whisper's hands. He saw the heads on the wall, and in an instant his mind was made up.

There was a loud crunch, and where before there had been a shotgun lay only pieces. "No! No!" the man said, crawling forward to cradle the pieces of his gun. "That was...she was so beautiful..." he muttered.

Whisper leveled the variable wispon at him. "I won't ask again. Who are you?"

"Your best nightmare."

"Whisper, run!" Orange yelled suddenly from the canister. Blue made a cube to instantly put some distance between him and Whisper.

An odd purple glow arose around him, his eyes the same deep purple glow as the water in Spiral Hill. "There's no running from me," he said, his voice echoing as he charged into the cube, making it disappear instantly. His hands had once been normal human hands, but now instead just held claws.

Whisper fired two shots towards the remains of the man, only to be ignored with a minor chuckle as he started to charge her. She hooked the wispon onto her back and started running through the mansion.

The alarms were blaring again, giving a small amount of red light for Whisper to see through. A large room with a staircase on both sides, she bolted up one as the man kept chasing her. "Green!" she shouted as she got to the top, jumping on top of the railings.

Red light, loud sounds, and Green managed to still hear her as he imbued himself into the wispon. She didn't need him for long, just long enough to float to the ground, hopefully taking longer than the man would.

He tossed himself through the railings, not caring about the ten or fifteen foot fall. He smashed into the ground, a broad grin that was almost alien apparent on his face. "You can't hide from me. You can't run. I am the immortal frenzy."

"Cyan, Orange!" Whisper tried. Orange wasn't much use in such close quarters, but she could knock him down with Cyan's laser, follow it up with an Orange sniper shot. If she did it right through his head, she'd win instantly.

Cyan imbued herself instantly, and Whisper could feel the energy coursing through her. She'd taken a lot more than just one battery from all the fences. "Pink, buy some time!" she tried to say.

The alarms blared louder, and the order was lost as the man started to charge at her.

She ducked into a kneel, and leveled the wispon one more time. She fired, hearing Cyan's shout of "Go away!"

Cyan's laser hit him dead on in the chest, and knocked him back...but only a moment as he got to his feet a second later again. "Youse gonna pays for hurting mee pattywahcka!"

"Great, now he's angry and frenzied!" Orange muttered. Frenzy...hadn't there been something wisps had mentioned about that? Or was that Sonic, either way she didn't have time to think about it as she ducked out the front door.

She half expected to see dozens of cops and police vehicles right outside, and a repeat of the Green Hill situation. Instead the place was filled with light from the dozens of floodlights, but was as empty as it was when she'd first seen it. There was a fountain in the middle, as rich people were sometimes wont to do.

Or rather, as she slammed a Blue imbued wispon into the ground to send herself flying, there had been a fountain in the grounds, as the man charged into it, raking into it with claws and jaws.

He was almost inhuman at this point. Before he'd had a simple purple aura, but now it was almost covering his entire body. "Death to all who betray me and my kind!"

"No one's betrayed you! You tried to kill us!" Blue shouted from the wispon. Whisper doubted that he was paying attention or listening as the purple water washed over him.

The frenzied aura grew stronger, replacing his entire body. Now he was nothing more than a purple mass, and a pair of large jaws intent on ripping her apart. Green hovered her gently over the snapping jaws of the purple beast. "Any ideas? Cyan didn't do anything to him!"

That wasn't true, technically. It did do something to him...it turned him a bit more human. He had started the stumbling talk again right afterwards.

"One," Whisper said. "Keep on guard everyone," she murmured as she switched to Orange, firing downwards at the beast and pushing herself up a bit higher. She fired once again towards the fountain this time, pushing her through the glass on the second floor.

Her back ached as the glass shattered around her, and she knew she probably had a few scratches because of that. She was in a long hallway, probably close to the main lobby that she'd been in earlier. Priceless vases and art that didn't make sense to her were lined the walls, all with alarms that blared red light and loud klaxons wailing.

There was no one single entrance here straight to the main area next to her and below her. But she didn't know the layout of this place, and there were multiple doors on either side.

The frenzied shouting stopped as the man, or whatever remained of him, started running towards where she was. She had only a minute or two to prepare, based on which entrance he'd go through. She felt the walls, trying to feel how solid and thick they were.

The place was industrialized, made out of a sturdy heavy iron. No blasting her way out of this one, unlike the warehouses from earlier.

"Blue, when you get a clear shot, try to buy some time. Cube him. Pink, set up spike strips both ways, we don't know which way he's coming. Orange, keep an eye and ear out. The more traps we can focus on him, the more likely we are to get past him," Whisper advised. Immediately the wisps went to work, not bothering with saying anything.

The sounds of the claws and jaws came closer, and around. It slammed into the wall next to her, and Whisper desperately hoped that she didn't have to make a third plan. But...there was always the other plan.

It got quieter a bit as the thing stopped slamming into the wall, instead heading towards the door on the closest side. "That one!" Orange pointed out.

"Cyan, Green, hover everything here and clear the path. Use them," Whisper finished.

The door was slammed open as the purple frenzied man screamed running straight down the hall.

Right. That's a thing that's happening now.

Until Next Time.