The Smurfocalypse Part 121: The Pluto Special Part 3: A World Without Hope
Table of Contents:
Days Gone By
The Point of No Return: The New Titan
The Brotherhood of Starshine
Days have passed since Star's death and Titan was not getting better. The memory of seeing his wife in that state and losing her had torn him mentally. Since that day he has not smiled or laughed and he was pushing Pluto away further and further to the point where their relationship was not the same. Little did Pluto no this was going to be a permanent arrangement and things would only get worse from here regarding Titan. They had been picked up by the last remaining officer in Runeword and were being transferred via Smurfmobile to what was supposed to be a safe place. It was Pluto, Titan, Poltergeist, Nova, and in the wedged in the back seat in between Titan and Pluto was a criminal that had been arrested before Runeword fell. The Smurf known as HD was an assassin and he was to be put to death once they had reached their destination.
"Centauri to headquarters do you copy?" Centauri said into his smurfietalkie as he drove.
"He's been trying talking into that stupid thing for hours! Nobody is going to respond!" Titan finally yelled in annoyance.
Centauri was a lieutenant in the Emperor's special task force. He wore the equivalent to an officer's uniform but it was white and leaning against his seat was the peak of Kepler arms, a laser rifle manufactured in a government owned facility. Not the makeshift bullshit some of the tinkerers cheekily tried to make for themselves before the fall. This thing could turn a Smurf to ashes in a single shot. As they drove Pluto sat quietly with her gaze focused on the floor. She wasn't exactly doing the best either and not having an adult to console her and talk about her pain wasn't helping. As she sat there her stomach involuntarily growled though she ignored it not saying anything. Titan turns his gaze to Pluto hearing the fact she's hungry and then turns to HD with what would be his signature nearly permanent scowl at this point. His expression fully reflected his trauma. Just looking at him one could tell he was no longer mentally well. HD had a bag and Titan suspected there was food in it.
"Hey asshole. Can't you see she's hungry?" Titan said to HD.
The Smurf met his gaze his eyes barely visible through the cloak he was wearing.
"What if I don't give a shit?" HD asked.
Titan nods.
"Interesting point, but consider this…" Titan said before punching HD in the mouth as hard as he could giving him a fat lip before swiping his bag and reaching in it tossing a fruit to Pluto.
"Shut the fuck up." Titan said.
Pluto takes the fruit and begins to eat silently as HD and Titan stare each other down.
"You're lucky I'm in these cuffs…" HD said.
"You're lucky I don't take my hate for this world out on your face." Titan said.
"Hey! I'll put you all in cuffs if I have to!" Centauri shouted back at them before focusing on the road.
He then grabs his Smurfietalkie and tries again.
"Lieutenant Centauri to headquarters do you read?" Centauri said only to get no response.
"Things must be worse than we could even imagine…" Nova said.
Eventually they reach the neighboring town of Siegefield a countryside town focused on agriculture. The forest turned to fields around them before they arrive in town to find it in the same state as Runeword. They stop and all of them get out onto the street surrounded by tattered huts and businesses. Upon stepping out of the smurfmobile Titan saw a familiar face on a poster stuck to the pole of a street lamp. He was immediately drawn to. It was Star. He stared for quite a bit longing to hold her in his arms again when the others joined him.
"We don't have to worry about the likes of them any longer. There's even worse scum to handle." Centauri said.
Titan felt a spark of rage flare up inside him his expression twisting to
"Yeah I actually handled this one myself years ago." Centauri said.
Titan grinds his teeth as he turns towards Centauri. Before anyone could react Titan had Centauri on the ground pinned in a submission. He grabs a tool Centauri had on his belt shaped like a black cylinder and pushed a red button in the center causing a beam of bright blinding light to come out.
"What are you doing?! Unhand me at once!" Centauri shouts trying to escape.
Titan sadistically shoves the tool into Centauri's right eye causing him to scream with agony as blood ran down his face. Titan smiles sadistically as he slowly inserts the tool into his other eye. Then he grabs his head and snaps his neck leaving him paralyzed, but not dead. Everyone else accept HD stared in horror and disbelief. HD had not seen such brutality in a long time it gave him newfound respect for Titan despite not even knowing the context of the situation. As Centauri was dying on the side of the street Pluto had taken down the poster and was just looking at it with tears silently streaming down her face. She tears the part of the poser off that had stated she was wanted along with other details leaving behind just Star's picture which she carefully folded and placed in her pocket. Titan swipes the keys to HD's cuffs and tosses them to him allowing him to free himself. He now was also in debt to Titan who had spared his life by freeing him and saving him from being put to death.
"If you want to settle the score let's do it." Titan said.
"You're that wrestler from the wasteland! Titan!" HD said in realization.
"What the hell do you care? None of us are who we're supposed to be anymore. Now do you want to die, or do you want to come with us?" Titan said coldly.
HD looks to Centauri who had finally died after agonizing suffering and then to Titan.
"I will follow you." HD said.
"Then get in the wagon." Titan said.
Titan turns his head towards Centarui's corpse and spits a large amount of spit onto it before turning and grabbing his rifle off the body and stepping into the driver's seat of a wagon. Titan had never driven a day in his life and stared unamused at the wheel and pedals as he did so all the others hopped into the wagon Pluto literally landed in the passenger seat next to him as she chose to climb through the window. Titan takes off showing his inexperience as they speed through the town. The wagon resembled a swat van with a huge spot in the back for others to sit. Titan was slowly establishing something here, and it wasn't going to be good. The worst of all is not only that someone as young as Pluto was sucked up into it, but that The Star of Pluto was going to be Titan's greatest weapon in getting back at this world. As though things weren't bad enough for her already she was now going to lose the Smurfs in her life she loves and trusts, especially Titan. Pluto looked out the window still not talking. She didn't have anything to say that anyone would want to hear. She had her elbow against the car door with her hand under her chin holding up her head as she watched the scenery fly by. When Star died Titan changed, and the world and her family has fallen apart.
"Let me see that Smurfie Talkie for a moment." Poltergeist said from the back.
Pluto went to reach for but before she get it Titan violently swiped it and tossed it into the back towards Poltergeist causing her to timidly pull her hand back.
"I learned this at work…" Poltergeist said as he immediately began tinkering with it.
HD watched curiously as Poltergeist starting toying with the Smurfie Talkie's inner working with a small tool with incredible precision.
"Ah, a tinkerer. You're pretty skilled." HD said nodding his head in approval
"I'm not just some average tinkerer I'm an engineer. Graduated from the Engineer's Guild in Cyberton. I fix and sometimes even build machines." Poltergeist said.
HD nodded his head as still curiously watched Poltergeist tinker. Poltergeist finishes whatever it was he was doing and handed Titan the Smurfie Talkie back.
"Now it can access any frequency. So if there are others around us using them we can hear and track them." Poltergeist said.
Titan smirks before full on grinning sinisterly as he changes the channel on the Smurfie Talkie to the one Poltergeist just basically programmed it to be able to use. Pluto glanced at Titan focusing her gaze on his face. He looked so frightening, so terrifying, and almost evil similar to the Titan we first knew when he entered the story. Pluto looked away not wanting to think about.
"He's going to do something really bad I know it…" Pluto thought.
The group drove right through Siegefield without incident. They were so far out in the countryside that demons were no longer there likely focusing their attention on the larger towns built closer together. If there were any survivors in this part of the area they were fortunate enough Titan didn't spot them. They were going to need supplies soon, and what does Titan do when he needs a lot of supplies fast? He fights. Eventually the vast fields ended and they were at last surrounded by the forest again bringing a small amount of comfort to all of them.
"How do Smurfs live in a huge open space like that?" Nova asked.
"They don't…" Titan responded cynically.
They'd through the bare wilderness for an hour or two before the sun started to set. They were not going to find a place to stay before darkness. They entered another town this one looking plainer when the Smurfie Talkie picks up feed drawing everyone's attention.
"There's a group of survivors holed up in the hospital." HD points out.
"They could have things we need, and a place to sleep." Nova said.
Titan once again grins his intentions reflected on his face as he makes a right turn the street sign indicating the hospital was nearby. They were still in an officer police force vehicle so none of the survivors suspected anything when they pulled up. The group of maybe twenty Smurfs and Smurfettes were outside the building toying with a generator with hopes it would start and the lights would come back on when they spotted the vehicle. They thought they were saved, that the emperor had finally sent help. They thought wrong. Titan grabs the laser rifle and gets out of the wagon the others follow his lead.
A Smurf dressed in red clothes approached Titan. He realized too soon that they were not the police and Titan immediately shot him with the rifle much to the horror of their entire group. The Smurf disintegrated into a pile of hot ash right there on the spot. The others screamed and raised their hands. Pluto's heart was pounding.
"What is he doing?!" Pluto thought.
Titan threw back his head and laughed an evil sadistic laugh as he kicked at the pile of ashes.
"There's going to be some changes around here, and if you want to live you'll walk the line!" Titan said.
"First off! Everything you own now belongs to Titan!" HD said standing by his side.
"Your lives now belong to Titan!" Poltergeist said.
"This world now belongs to Titan!" Nova said in the spur of the moment.
Pluto was visibly uncomfortable and just folded her hands behind her back and tried to stay hidden behind the others.
Titan tossed the rifle to HD and drew his sword forcing the survivors to line in a horizontal line. Titan laughs to himself as he sizes them all up. Most of them were just normal Smurfs with no weapons or any sort of fighting skills, but then he passed by one and the Smurf glared at him before revealing a concealed knife and trying to come at him. Titan responds by lifting the Smurf into the air above his head and then slamming him face first into the hard concrete killing him instantly and busting his skull open like watermelon.
"Oh we're going to fun tonight if this keeps up." Titan said with a sinister smile.
"You all now serve Titan." HD said.
"And you will provide for me!" Titan said holding out his arms sword still in hand.
The Brotherhood of Starshine
Months passed by and it was now winter. Titan's influence in the area as a glorified raider caused groups of survivors to diminish. Titan and his group were known and feared as The Brotherhood of Starshine. A new world order drenched in blood and pain where might makes right and weak suffer and die. Titan now completely out of his mind sat at the head of one of the largest criminal organizations to ever form on Kepler, and because of their fame Pluto was associated with it and seen the same exact way despite her age. Titan's group had expanded to seven Smurfs, and at this point none of them were worth their weight in shit as far as being a Smurf goes except for Pluto. The harsh lifestyle of combat and conquest had led to the group getting their Smurf essence, but because of the sheer power of The Star of Pluto Pluto had yet to be pushed into a situation where it'd activate. For what it's worth she lived comfortably off raided supplies, but she was slowly losing her grasp herself. Pluto realized that in order to survive now she had to be a weapon that Titan could exploit, a figure Titan could brag about and wave in front of anyone who dared to oppose him. It was far from what she wanted. She participated in raid after raid using the Star of Pluto to strike terror into the hearts of others only to receive the smallest bit of positive attention from Titan. However her lack of Smurf essence alone was enough to get her into trouble. The problem with Titan that she was beginning to realize is nothing was ever good enough, and she always had to be stronger.
Titan sat alone in the sort of throne room he had established at the top floor of hospital. There was nothing in his eyes anymore. Everywhere he went on this planet he saw her face, mocking him, judging him silently.
"Why do you keep tormenting me?" Titan asked himself.
Titan stand up and punches a hold in a nearby metal cabinet.
"I didn't mean to let you die!" Titan shouts.
Titan grabs the sides of his head and fights back tears as his memories of Star swirled up to the moment she was turned into one of those things. They seemed too far away to be real. Now it was just a demon, a ghost haunting him every day. Whenever he'd do something notable in this world there she'd be. How many times was this going to happen?
"Why won't you leave me alone?!" Titan screams.
Pluto heard Titan's mental break from the down the hall and sighed before taking Star's picture out of her pocket and stared at it. The life they had is so far away. She truly was the glue that kept Titan together. Without her they had no real goal nobody to provide for or protect. Titan lost his shining star, his purpose. The light in his life died forever and there was nothing Pluto could do to help because he pushed her away.
Titan sat back down and immediately decided to take his anger out on Pluto.
"Pluto! Get in here now!" Titan shouted furiously.
Titan's voice echoed throughout the halls causing Pluto to jumped as she returned Star's picture to her pocket. She then made it to the throne room as soon as possible.
"Yes Titan!" Pluto said.
"Zap's group owes me my fucking supplies! Get your ass out there and get them!" Titan shouted slamming his fist onto the arm rest of his throne.
"Yes Titan!" Pluto shouts.
"If he pulls the whole 'oh, I don't have it this month' again kill him in front of everyone he cares about. I've had enough of his lazy ass. I have a replacement in mind." Titan said.
"Yes Titan!" Pluto said.
"Take Poltergeist with you. We're low on fuel and he's the only one that can drive that crazy thing he invented." Titan said.
Pluto bows lowers her head indicating a nod before turning and walking off.
"Mister Poltergeist!" Pluto shouts down the hall.
Poltergeist walks up the stairs.
"Titan said we're going to get Zap's. Get the bike." Pluto said.
"Very well." Poltergeist said.
Pluto goes to her room at other end of the hall and grabs her bag and putting on her thick blue scarf draping the rest of it down her back. Her sword was already on her nowadays at all times. She didn't trust the dark shady characters Titan chooses to affiliate with. Especially Carambola who eyes her silently from a dark corner as she steps out of her room. He wanted to kill her so badly specifically. He wanted to pulls those braids behind her head and scalp her as she screams before keeping them as a trophy. However Titan was literally paying him not to. He watched her as she walked off back towards Poltergeist.
"One day Titan won't be here to stop me." Carambola thought.
Titan and Pluto take the elevator to the first floor. The hospital was three stories showing off what architecture could someday lead to on Earth. They go out back to where all of Titan's vehicles were parked and Poltergeist leads them to his motorcycle. They both hop on and Poltergeist starts it before loudly speeding off into the distance with Pluto in the back. They drove through the ruins of the huge Smurf town that was now a part of Titan's territory until they reached the place Pluto had been sent too. A small section of town that had been surrounded by walls for protection.
"It's Titan's soldiers!" A Smurf on the gate yelled as Poltergeist drove up to the gate.
"Open up!" Pluto demanded leaping off the bike and walking up to the gate.
The large gate opens and Poltergeist drives inside followed shortly behind by Pluto. Pluto prepares herself mentally for the situation. She walks in like she owns the place mainly because she does and strides along as though she were an adult Smurfette. She stops in the middle of the settlement consisting of a few post Smurfocalypse structures that were being maintain and restored along with a field for growing crops, a watch tower, and several other structures. With Titan's help this little place wasn't half bad, but everything has a price and it was time they paid up.
"Zap! Get out here now!" Pluto yelled stomping her foot.
Out of a nearby hut came the Smurf known as Zap. He used to be the leader of this town, but now it belongs to Titan. Titan made a point to emasculate him by forcing him to wear white and then making him a pawn in his game. Pluto had no respect for him at all. He's insignificant and allowed someone to deface him because he's weak and too much of a coward to defend himself.
"Pluto… I didn't expect to see you so soon." Zap said approaching her.
"Don't you look down on me you pig!" Pluto said with disgust as she scowled looking up at him.
Zap freezes in his tracks the tension quickly building as he kneels down before Pluto so he is eye level with her.
"Y-Yes! Of course Pluto! Forgive my insolence." Zap said bowing at her feet.
Pluto stares at him unamused by his submissive behavior.
"Titan wants his stuff." Pluto said.
There was a pause as Zap tried to grasp hold of what little respect for himself he had left to work with.
"If you could just give us a few more days…" Zap said.
Pluto's face contorted into anger upon hearing this.
"You literally had a month! Two months in fact!" Pluto said.
"If you could just give us some more time…" Zap said.
"I'm afraid that's not how it works Zap." Pluto said approaching him.
She grasps his chin and forces him to look up at her from his kneeling position.
"You're telling me after all we've given you and all the work we do to keep you safe from demons that you can't even come up with a few useful things to repay Titan… In this huge place with everything you need and you can't even do your part." Pluto said.
"If Titan would just ask for less…" Zap said.
Pluto bashes Zap in the face with her elbow.
"Titan can ask for whatever he wants! This land belongs to Titan not you!" Pluto said.
Zap visibly starts to shake with intense fear staring at the ground with wide eyes.
"You know what has to happen now right?" Pluto said drawing her sword.
Zap flinches and stares at the blade in horror.
"Great Smurf! Please no! Just give us one more month!" Zap shouted.
Pluto sighs deeply and then holds her blade to the Smurf's neck.
"Poor insignificant little Zap… It would seem Titan has no use for you anymore." Pluto said.
"Have mercy on me Pluto…" Zap said.
Pluto smiles and nods.
"Of course." Pluto said lowering the blade.
Zap sighs in relief as Pluto removes the blade from his neck.
"Bless you Pluto… We'll work twice as hard I promise." Zap said.
Pluto then hauls off and shoves her sword into Zap's chest killing him almost instantly.
"A painless death is more than you deserve." Pluto said.
Pluto looks back at Poltergeist who was just silently watching the whole time.
"Take everything. Leave them with just enough to survive." Pluto said.
"It will be done." Poltergeist said with a nod.
Pluto pulls a smurfie talkie out of her pocket.
"Titan the job is done. We're bringing your stuff home." Pluto said.
Titan's evil laugh could be heard over the smurfie talkie.
"Excellent job Pluto. I'll send a vehicle out to pick it up. Come home." Titan said.
Pluto smiles. Titan's praise was still important to her. Poltegeist and Pluto with the help of the terrified Smurfs and Smurfettes in the survivor camp got Titan his stuff. A large Smurfless wagon would arrive later that day to collect it and Poltergeist and Pluto sped off. They traveled for a bit through bare wilderness taking a different route back to the hospital.
"Remember all those years ago when you spared my life?" Poltergeist asked.
Pluto not expecting this to ever be brought up again answers.
"Yes, why?" Pluto asked.
"It was a mistake." Poltergeist said before kicking Pluto off the motorcycle. Pluto gasps and screams as she hits the street and skids before tumbling into the woods and rolling down a hill. Pluto lands face first in the snow unconscious as Poltergeist speeds off.
"That finally takes care of that. She wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway. She can't even use her Smurf essence… I'll just tell Titan she died." Poltergeist thought.
Next Chapter: Left for Dead Part 1: The Power Within