The subway was dark, even in the daytime. It wasn't supposed to be- atmospheric lighting ran the length of the station- but the invading freak show seemed to be rather adept at knocking out all but emergency lighting systems. A strained blue luminescence filled the abandoned subway, showing in dark detail all that remained. PETs, handbags, backpacks... perhaps most heartbreaking were a pair of mittens made for little hands.
Carrie felt a rush of anger at that. She didn't care what they threw at her, but all of these innocent people were in the way; it felt nothing short of criminal. An uncomfortable pang of guilt struck her. Maybe she'd just read too many comics, but... Cap'n Comet would've never let this happen. He'd have pounded the pavement until he discovered their plan, found the head guy and knocked his sorry ass out- and with a dinky little yo-yo, no less. No civilians, no massive destruction. She needed to be more of a detective like that. Put things together. Being a big bad ass-kicker was no good if the fight was always being taken to you.
Carrie finally saw Natalie's point- having super powers wasn't something to be selfish about. She needed to protect people... especially Natalie.
"Alright, there's a bench," Samantha noted. "Put him down there, and I can get to work."
The group gathered around as Erwin was set down on the bench. He'd been talking before, but his body was tiring from trying to keep everything together.
The bat examined him closely. "We need to find some way to set the bone; to keep it straight so I can heal it properly."
Carrie shook her head and pulled out a medstick, lighting it and taking a moisture-filled drag. "Don't ask me, I'm not a doctor."
"... Hey, what about this?" Natalie grabbed Erwin's PET from his pocket and activated it.
"Are you going to ask a message board how to set bones?" Sam tilted her head quizzically.
The wolf browsed several features for a moment. "Nope! Let's see... wardrobe... overshirt... right sleeve..."
Sam's eyes lit up with enlightenment. "Ah! Yes, that's brilliant!" She watched and guided as the fabric on the ferret's long-sleeved shirt began to tighten around his broken arm, slowly but surely, closer and closer until it was completely straight. She felt around the surface to ensure the bones were aligned, and slowly closed in to kiss Erwin... though not before looking to the others. "This might take a few minutes. Make sure I'm not interrupted, if you please."
Natalie joined Carrie in standing guard a small distance away from their friends. "... What happened to Ms. Hendrix was pretty crazy, wasn't it?"
The cat blew out a long, misty breath. "Yeah."
"I don't think she's in control at all."
Carrie shook her head slowly. "Hendrix isn't a psychopath. Whatever's on her is making her mouth move."
Nat observed the rest of the subway, looking from one misplaced item to the next. "That thing that's all over her... it seemed... different from the other monsters. None of them talked. This one did."
The shirtless bruiser nodded slowly, taking another drag. "... Yeah."
"It was... it was like it was made of... ink, or something." Somewhere in the back of her mind, some sort of spark lit, a bell rung... but she couldn't place it. "Yeah, like she got inked somehow."
Carrie just blinked several times. "... I guess?"
Sighing in frustration, Natalie stared at a support column with broken tiles scattered at its base. "Carrie, I had another dream."
The cat tilted her head. "Goo girl?"
She nodded, troubled. "It didn't try to kill me this time. In fact..." She went into detail, explaining the dream she'd had while knocked out.
Her girlfriend stayed silent until the end, but her expression went from intrigue to confusion quite quickly. "Sugarbutt, how did you have a dream about these things before we saw them? If they weren't real, that'd be one thing, but..."
"Exactly," Nat whispered, shaking her head. "I don't know what to do..."
Carrie stared ahead for a few heavy moments, misty breath escaping her nose as she peered into the blue darkness. Detective work. Figure it out. "... Try to talk to it."
Natalie couldn't contain her incredulous face. "What??"
The cat patiently took a drag, clearing her throat. "So far, most things attack us. Either they don't talk or they're evil as shit." She blew out a ring of mist. "If this one's willing to talk, let it. Either you're dreaming and it doesn't work, or it's... real, somehow... and we get answers."
She had to admit... it made a lot of sense. "But... you don't think that's kinda... crazy? This thing seems to think it's in my head."
The medstick was pointed at Natalie. "Ink monsters eating people. That's crazy. Nothing really matters past that."
Natalie took a deep breath. "... Okay. I'll... try." The only remaining obstacle was how. How did it communicate with her? The only common thread seemed to be dreams and... reflections. The ebon girl took out her PET and glanced slowly into the screen, her staring at her own unsure face. "... Hey. Inkface," she whispered, tilting her head. "Goo girl. Say something."
Her reflection in the device's thumb-smudged screen darkened visibly... until her eyes and mouth became pink pools in the blackness. "Ah! There, see??" Its voice, identical to Natalie's, projected as if from the PET's speakers. "I told you I'd figure something out."
Nat's stomach flopped. It was real. She could no longer handwave the things she'd seen as dreams- either it was real, or she needed to go back in the Brain Bullet. She shivered at that thought, and knit her brows. "Okay, you. What's your name? What's your angle?"
It seemed genuinely surprised. "Oh! Right, um. Still working on the name thing. Aaand my motivation is to... figure out my motivation?" The liquid phantom made a sound as if to acknowledge that even it thought that was lame. "I promise I'm not trying to be evasive, I just can't remember anything!"
Natalie's disposition went from awe and wonder very quickly to frustration again. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Do you have anything for me? What are you? Are you like the other thing we just got through fighting? How did you get inside my head?? And stop talking so loud, the others will hear you!"
"Whoa, whoa!" it replied. "First of all, nobody can hear me but you."
"I can hear you," Carrie contested.
"Whoa!" it blinked- a function that seemed superfluous for it. "Didn't see that coming. I don't know how you even could hear me..."
The cat shook her head. "I'm just as confused as you are."
"... Maybe if... ugh, I can't remember. Anyway. I'm definitely the same thing as the one that took over your teacher. We're part of the same species, I guess you could call it. I know I'm part of you, the same way she's part of Ms... Hendrix, was it?"
Natalie's eyes went wide. The same way? Her mind raced back to the way that... thing had changed the skunk woman into a horrible murder machine. "Oh god, get out, then!"
"C-Calm down! It's okay! I... I don't know how to get out, either. I'm not really all that sure how I got in."
"Peachy." She sighed. "Okay. Okay. So... if it's the same way, then-"
"Then why is she an evil bitch while you're talking to us like you wanna be pals?" Carrie interjected. "Why isn't Natalie a monster like Hendrix?"
"Be...cause I don't wanna!" It replied in a way as if to suggest that that was the craziest idea in the world. "What good would it do me?"
"... It's a good question, though." Natalie prodded, "Did you just forget to be evil? Or is she a bad apple?"
The wolf's blackened reflection stayed silent for a moment. "... I... I wanna say that she's just a bad apple... but at the same time I get the feeling that there are lots more of us... and you'd better be careful around them."
The girls traded looks of confusion. "Yeah, 'cause that makes a ton of sense," Carrie remarked dryly.
"Okay, okay," Natalie waved away her girlfriend's sarcasm. This was too important. She had to figure out what was going on before it became a problem. "How did you become a part of me?"
"Probably the same way it became a part of her. I don't really remember, but it feels like I've been here longer than memory serves."
"D-Do you know anything about all the superpowers we have?"
The two of them spun around to notice Erwin and Sam, standing behind them somewhat demurely. The ferret's arm was healed completely.
Natalie felt her ears burning. "H-How long have-"
"We heard the whole thing, dear." Samantha shook her head. "Your dream, the... thing talking... all of it. Don't worry, we don't think you're crazy." The bat gave a sympathetic smile.
"What, can everybody hear me??" The reflection demanded. "I could've sworn-... ugh, look, I... my kind do have special abilities, at least some of us. And... from what I remember, I think we're able to... confer some of that to our... bodies? Hosts? I can't think of a better word for it." It continued, "It would make sense that you gained your powers from us, but you'd all have to have one of me inside of you as well... and you would definitely know. So... I'm not sure."
"Oh! Then let me use your special abilities!" Natalie replied with urgency. "I am kind of the thing carrying you around. Or is it just my luck that you don't have any?"
It stared back blankly at her. "... Yyyes. I can remember that much- I do have my own abilities."
Nat fist-pumped in excitement. "Yesss! Let me use them! Turn 'em on!"
It seemed taken aback a moment. "I... I am! They're on!"
That confused her. "Uh. Okay. How do I use them?"
"... I don't know? I think you already have been."
"What are they??"
"I-... I'll get back to you on that?"
Natalie took a deep breath and sighed in frustration. "This is pointless."
Erwin nodded. "I don't think she remembers anything else."
It seemed sad. "I'm sorry. I know there's a lot at stake, but I'm trying my hardest. For... for what it's worth, I'm really sorry this is all happening."
The wolf shook her head. "Just go back where you came from. Let me know if you remember anything else."
"Okay."
"And goo-girl?" Nat added.
"Yes?" Apparently it would answer to the name, in lieu of another.
Natalie gave it a serious look. "Don't ever take over my body like that other one did."
"A little trust, here! I haven't done anything yet!" The voice reminded her of her own, trying to defend herself from allegations of brawling while in the principal's office.
"Okay, okay." The girl carefully considered her words. "I'm just a little spooked that something's been living inside me. It freaks me out."
"... I won't take over your body, Natalie," it agreed. "I don't even think I can. That might be a special ability of that one, I don't know. Just... just give me more time. I have to go now. It's... draining to talk to you like this." With that, the thing's reflection changed into Natalie's.
There was a long silence.
Erwin blinked in wonder. "Wow. This is getting crazy..."
Carrie shook her head. "... Let's just get our clothes back on and go."
-
- -
-
Dismantling their makeshift stretcher wasn't an issue- Carrie was at least as good at untying knots as making them in the first place. As they traveled down the long, winding walkway that ran next to the subway tracks, however, the hard part was trying to make sense of the situation at hand.
"Do you think they might be illegal gene lab escapees?" Carrie hazarded.
Erwin furrowed a brow and adjusted his glasses. "The monsters? Impossible. The size, the volume of monsters that attacked... you would need so much space to develop them all. And time! It would take years even to come up with them, much less breed them all. And how would they contain them?"
Natalie nodded slowly. "We figured the same thing. What about the Inked?"
The ferret blinked. "Is that what we're calling them now?"
She shrugged, feeling a bit self-conscious about it. "Um. Sure?"
"Hm." He hesitated a moment. "I don't know. I guess you might make them in a gene lab, but... how could you keep something like that secret? And why give them the ability to take over people?"
"What else could it be, though?" Sam ventured. "I mean, these didn't just come from nowhere. Are... are they aliens??"
Erwin shook his head. "The Ring would've picked them up way before they reached Earth." He chuckled. "What would your comic book hero do against aliens?"
Carrie considered it. "You know, weirdly, Cap never fought any aliens. I guess these guys wouldn't be aliens, either, though."
"Then what-" Natalie's ears twitched. "Hey, up ahead! I hear something!" The group began running for the source of the sound, and within a few moments, it became clearer- someone was barking and somebody else was in hysterics. "What in the world?" They rounded the bend and saw...
A wolf.
It wasn't to say that there was a person of Natalie's persuasion barking their head off, but rather, a quadrupedal wolf with wild eyes and shaggy, Winter-worthy fur. Standing with its forepaws up on the wall, it barked at Max, who was clinging to the wall several feet above it.
"Go away!" He pleaded frantically, holding his tail. "This is not for you!"
"Max!" Sam gasped. "What are you doing with that dangerous animal??"
"I was scouting ahead like you told me to, when this ferocious beast attacked! I escaped barely with my life!" He winced and cried out melodramatically.
"Stay right there, Max!" Natalie slowly began to step toward the thing.
Carrie blinked. "Natalie, are you crazy??"
"Quiet!" she shushed, pacing slowly, evenly at the canine- who spotted her and stood on all fours again, panting. "Eeeasy there, big guy, you're alright."
It hunkered down and growled at her.
Natalie stood tall, cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and growled back at it. Her ears flattened against her skull just the same as its own did. They faced each other down for what felt like minutes.
Carrie watched intensely. "Max! Throw me a sandwich!" The iguana complied, tossing her one of their packed foodstuffs, which she immediately unwrapped and held out. "Hey! Have a look at this, huh?" She took a bite out of it, and actually managed to get the thing's attention. The cat then tossed between Natalie's feet.
Nat coughed several times. "Ungh! Oh man that hurts!"
The end of Natalie's growling pre-empted the end of the animal's growling as well. It whined and licked its chops, staring intently at the food between her feet.
"... Oh! You're hungry. Ah-ha." Though it disgusted her to eat off the floor, she took a quick bite of the sandwich and then dropped it again. "We took a bite, and now you can have some. Get it? We brought the food, and if you want it, you gotta play nice."
The wolf slowly, cautiously advanced. Its steps were agonizingly slow as it watched the rest of them, and the group slowly backed away from the sandwich. As soon as it felt it was within range, the animal quickly snapped up the sandwich and retreated, running far from them.
"He was a small one, wasn't he?" Sam queried.
"Yeah. Just a hungry pup," Natalie confirmed. "Really hungry, and needed an alpha female to feed him. The question is... how did he get all the way down here?"
"I don't know, but thank you!" Max landed frantically and hugged Natalie.
"Mrph!" The girl winced and squeezed back. "Be more careful, Max, we're in a dangerous world now."
"I know!" He agreed, and leaned in. "You know... Natalie... I'm beginning to think that my style might not be invincible..."
She laughed and smiled. "Let's not jump to conclusions, Max." Natalie turned and beckoned the others. "C'mon! We've wasted too much time already, let's go!"
Sam smiled. "Lead the way, Captain."
Natalie took the lead at a confident pace, happy to be given problems she could actually solve. It actually reminded her of each and every Hallowed Halls' Eve, when she'd take her friends to play Haunted Castle. A game of holograms, real objects and people in costume, it was a mystery adventure usually relegated to a few rooms of a building in the business district. Every time that spooky holiday came around, however, it became a building-spanning frightfest testing the nerve, observation and deductive reasoning of all involved. Sam and Erwin were terrible scaredy pants, Max was never a help in any situation that required logic, and Carrie had once nearly gotten them kicked out for punching a suspicious-looking butler.
Yet... she wouldn't dream of going without them.
"Hey, Natalie... whatcha thinkin' about?" Erwin probed.
"Huh?" She snapped out of her reverie. "Oh. Uh, nothing really. I'm just... glad I have you guys." The hooded girl smiled warmly.
"... Oh. Us, too." The ferret smiled back. "And... I don't think you're weird for having that goo thing inside your head."
She tilted her head. "Oh?"
Sam nodded with a prim kindness all her own. "Right. You're still our Natalie."
Max dropped his voice a couple of octaves and peered at each of them as he walked on the wall. "In a world, where chaos reigns supreme, she's a courageous renegade girl who doesn't play by the rules. In their darkest hour, she could lead a ragtag team of misfits to victory."
While the scaly goofball ranted, Carrie held her hand suddenly, with a gently firm grip.
Her smile lit anew. "Yeah. Don't worry." She faced ahead again, looking up to see a flight of stairs that led up into brightly lit vegetation not native to their dome. "I promise I'll always be the same person. You can count on me." Her hand pointed upward. "There. The nature preserve. We're almost to the climate control center. Carrie, take point- I want you out there in case we run into anymore monsters."
Carrie smirked and nodded, walking ahead of them. "Count on me. I'm a brick house on wheels."
-
- -
-
The Nature Preserve was a part of every dome, an area sectioned off for the sole purpose of keeping animals, plants and other things that couldn't be afforded to run wild through places where people lived. Their climates were carefully controlled, and their areas were cordoned off by the same technology that facilitated the dome in general. Being that various climates were needed for the different animals that lived in the preserve, they had to be located as close to the Climate Control Center as possible... which usually meant that the center was smack-dab in the middle of several of the preserves.
As the group walked out of the subway, they noticed a number of things. First, they could hear wild birds making strange calls in the air, which was bad- it meant that the border that kept the preserve and the rest of the dome separate had been breached somehow. Second, far from the Summer that was or the heat they'd experienced that morning, it was downright brisk that afternoon. That was bad as well- it suggested that the Weather Control Unit was cycling even faster. Third and finally, the glass tunnel that the subway emptied into was shattered, crushed and otherwise exposed to the jungle elements of the second preserve.
"Great." Carrie rolled her eyes. "Is there anything they didn't destroy?"
Before she finished her sentence, a great screeching, roaring bellow sounded through the jungle. Broken glass danced along the ground, whole glass rattled in its frame, and ears flattened against skulls all throughout the group.
A huge shape appeared up from the vegetation, looming above them in its gigantic stature. From a vaguely spheroid body sprouted four massive stump-like legs and one entirely too-long neck, ending in a head that held three rows of eyes along its crest-like face. It opened its mouth to reveal a whale-like baleen and let out another deafening roar as its eyes focused unblinkingly on the group of teenagers. Birds, both recognized and not, flew out of the same vegetation from which it emerged, and other strange wildlife fled as well.
"H-Holy crap!" Erwin stuttered, shaking in his shoes. "What's that?!"
"Stomper!" Natalie warned as it began to lift a leg in its plod toward them. "Watch out, they're what's destroyed the rest of the city!"
As soon as one massive foot hit the ground with a low rumble, the screeching end of the initial cacophony made sense- half a dozen crawlers leapt up from behind the framework of the tunnel and scrambled toward them in a mess of limbs.
"Crawlers!" Carrie clenched her fists tightly and dashed out in front of the group to intercept. One of the multi-limbed creatures leapt at her, which she met with a vicious grin and a powerful uppercut across its horrid body, launching it against the glass.
While Carrie acted as vanguard, Natalie had shoved a shoulder out in front of her and rolled in front of the others. A crawler approached her, which she stomped middle-mass. It responded by pushing back up hard enough to send her flipping backward- thankfully she'd remembered enough from gymnastics to instinctively land it, and simply punted the hateful little thing, earning a screech from it.
Her cat partner had grabbed another of the recalcitrant multidextrous monsters and slammed it powerfully against the glass where its peer had been punched. For good measure, she sent a fist its way, throwing her whole body into it as per usual with devastating effect- it dropped like a sack of mud. Yet another, however, had been using her brutal distraction to crawl up her leg and onto her back. Its hands grabbed arm, neck, ear, and to her great offense, chest. "Oh I don't THINK so!" The cat spun around once to knock it off balance, then made a charge straight for the scuffed glass wall, slamming with her entire body into it. As it had with Natalie much earlier, the creature dropped quickly.
Meanwhile, Natalie had her hands full. With Sam, Erwin and Max trying to find the safest place to stand, the ebon-furred fighter found herself kicking away more attackers than she engaged. She would punch one, another one would appear. She'd slam that one onto the ground, two more had popped up in her periphery. Nat pumped her fists wildly at a leaping attacker and managed to score a hit or two, knocking it off course to grasp uselessly at her. Her kicking tactics worked to delay, but they weren't devastating enough if she couldn't take the time to pull them back.
The rumbling was getting closer, which threw Carrie into overdrive. Instead of simply swinging, she now turned with her attacks, using her entire body's momentum to deliver her blows for her. Several crawlers came for her. She backhanded one against the glass with a loud, organic ~crack!~, spun around, sent an uppercut into another once more, and stomped the middle mass of a third that had latched onto her tail- but unlike Natalie's attempt, her own cruel force flattened the creature against the ground with a series of discomforting pops.
One of them had latched onto Max, who crawled frantically from one wall to another, finally dropping down in front of Carrie- who then viciously ripped it from him, screamed something unintelligible at it, and used two of its arms as a grip to bash it against the wall and two other creatures.
"By Thor's holy toenails!" Max cowered, but he wasn't sure who from. It took a second for him to notice Natalie on the other side, trying desperately to handle her end of things. She did quite well, until a crawler used two others as a distraction to crawl up her torso, holding her limbs to her sides as she struggled. A horrible mouth opened up in its center mass, and it began making a terrible sound.
"N-Natalie, don't let it finish!" Erwin squeaked out in a panic.
Carrie roared out as she struggled with several creatures, "COWARD! GET OVER HERE!"
The iguana reacted without delay, firing his tongue out at the thing. However strong its grip was, his taste-tacular hold was much, much stronger, and he ripped it from his friend's torso with incredible force. This was fantastic! ... Until he realized the horrible thing was now careening toward his face at incredible speeds.
Carrie slammed everything else on her to the ground and spun on her heel, sending a furious fist directly into the ambitious monster's body mid-air. Something loud broke within it when the two opposing forces met, and it quickly flopped to the ground, squeaking out a terrible sound as its limbs struggled.
Behind the cat, Max struck a goofy, awkward one-legged pose he probably thought was martial-arts related. "Invincible Steel Fist of the Plum Patch!"
His shenanigans calming her berserker rage for the moment, Carrie looked more soberly at the situation. Natalie was easily securing the perimeter around her friends from the now beaten, exhausted creatures that had attacked them. Erwin was standing sentry, keeping her aware of every little thing that could've gotten through, whereas Sam was uneasily sitting on top of a crawler that had fallen victim to a hard blow and now struggled under her while she squeaked in disgust.
And the stomper was right on top of them. Its colossal shape lowered its head to peer into the tunnel, at the same time raising a ponderous trunk-like foot.
"Natalie!" Carrie yelled, running toward its head. "Gimme a boost!"
The wolf girl would've protested, but instinct from schoolyard fights took over, and ducked down, offering a shoulder to stand on. After the cat's foot met her, she stood up with her knees as forcefully as she could under the added weight, at the same time that Carrie jumped. By the time they'd completed this maneuver, the stomper's head had pulled in as close to them as it could, and the cat grabbed onto the thing's head by its crest.
It recoiled, raising up at the same time that its botched attempt to squish the rest of them struck to the side, destroying more glass tunnel. Carrie felt herself being lifted into the air at heights that made her stomach flop. She steeled herself, focusing on the rage that had fueled her earlier barrage, and waited for it to stop moving before lifting herself to straddle it. She heard Natalie's faint voice, but couldn't bear to look down- instead, she scooted back along the neck, looped her arm around the crest and slammed her fist into its biggest, shiniest eye she could find.
As one would imagine, it roared- incredibly loudly from this vantage point- in pain and rage, shaking its head from side to side. She was no rodeo rider, but anger kept her anchored to it, jabbing that white fist into its eye again and again. It writhed, stepping back clumsily in its attempts to get the pugilistic cat off of it. Finally, it turned about completely, whipped its head one way, then the other in a movement too rapid for Carrie to fully comprehend. One moment she was clinging tightly to the thing's cranium, the next she was heading for the earth below like a meteor from Mars. She braced her body for impact, muscles tightening as much as possible, her eyes closed as her heart sunk into her gut.
The sound was deafening. Carrie hit the ground with such force she could feel herself digging into the ground. She felt no pain, but that could've been good or bad. She sucked in a deep breath, and immediately regretted it. Opening her eyes, she could see that her impact kicked up incredible amounts of dust, all of which she'd greedily inhaled. Her lungs burned and spasmed, throwing her into fits of coughing. She struggled to draw in badly-needed breath despite the dust, her eyes stinging.
"Carrie! Carrie!" She heard Natalie's voice over her lung spasms, but barely. Before she knew it, a hand was reaching frantically in her pocket and pulling out a medstick, which was shoved into her mouth. Natalie put her girlfriend's shirt over her face to let her breathe. Several moments of coughing passed before the cat was able to genuinely take in a solid, moisture-filled breath. "Are you okay??"
Carrie opened her watery eyes and wiped at them, taking slow, even breaths half through her medstick, half through her shirt. Streams of mist puffed out from her nose, and she cleared her throat of now wet, congealed dirt. "Ungh. Did I get him?"
"It's rampaging the other way," Sam reported. "We should leave, I think those crawly things are getting better somehow..."
Natalie nodded back at her before facing her girlfriend again. "Can you stand up?"
"Hngh. Yeah." Carrie stood with a wet cough. "Let's go."
-
- -
-
Footfalls. Brush being cast aside. Hard breathing. For five solid minutes, that was all any of the five teens heard as they rushed toward the inner preserve barrier. They had to make it to Climate Control, or the entire journey was for naught.
Sam screamed as a hand reached out for her. Everybody turned their heads to see... an old classmate of theirs, reaching out a hand as he groaned in pain.
"Oh! Gus McMacky!" Natalie panted as she recognized the rhino for who he was. He was a bit young, but sturdy and cheerful. Of course... nobody had been having a very good day, so it was understandable that he was in such bad shape. "Are you alright?"
"Unnnnhhhgh..." He replied, clearly in pain.
"Oh, geez. What happened?" She reached out to him- and found her wrist snatched up in his grip as he groaned. "Argh! Gus! What the hell?!"
Her former classmate turned completely grey, his flesh smoothing over and shining like liquid in the afternoon sun. What's more, it began to flow off of him and onto her, wicking up her fingers and arm.
"Natalie!" Carrie threw herself shoulder-first into the boy, her momentum beating his mass and sending him toppling over with a dull groan.
Nat, for her part, tried to shake the horrid grey off of herself, droplets of it succumbing to centripetal force and pooling on the ground next to Gus. "He's one of them, run!"
And run they did. And more people they recognized and didn't started coming out of the same area that Gus had, walking toward them slowly in a haze. They could recognize some uniforms from the Fabricatory, preserve staff, a couple of teachers, a mass trans conductor... even a cashier from Burger Dictator.
"Zooombiieees!" Max yelled out as he beat feet with the others.
They easily outpaced the others until they could no longer see them, but quickly ran out of room to run as they neared the barrier door- a door at which Ms. Hendrix now stood, smiling.
"... You." Natalie knit her brows.
"That was a mean trick you played on your teacher, boys and girls," she said with playful chastisement that badly concealed a hideous malevolence.
"You're not our teacher," Sam accused. "You're an ugly blob that ate her!"
The skunk chuckled darkly. "Oh, Samantha, you never did elaborate properly."
"I'm gonna take that smug look off your face and feed it to you," Carrie grit her teeth and let out puffs of vapor from her nose not unlike a bull about to charge.
"Wait, Carrie, she's trying to goad us," Natalie put a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't have to do anything, child," she replied all too easily, her grin growing. "You're helpless. There's plenty just like me, waiting for a chance to come and get you like the monster in your closet."
"Just like you?" Natalie tilted her head. "That's not what she told us..."
Ms. Hendrix frowned. "Told you? She? Nobody should be talking to you..."
The wolf girl's heart skipped a beat. She shouldn't have mentioned that.
The skunk smiled again. "And now, silence." She peered at them. "Interesting. But irrelevant. Because you're such star students for avoiding all the mayhem thus far, and braving it unlike your peers... I think it's time for your final exam."
Rustling from the brush alerted them to the entrance of shufflers, their cyclopean unblinking eyes fiercely staring them down as they made their way inward from the surrounding circle.
"What do you hope to do with all this?!" Natalie demanded, herding her friends in a group and standing to one side as Carrie did the other. "What's your game?? Are you... aliens or something??"
Ms. Hendrix smiled as a stomper came up from the brush, encased completely in a horrid pale blue sheen. "Reveal the entire plan right now, because I'm sure you're about to die? Oh, Natalie." She laughed, the head of the thing picking her up. "You read too many comic books."
The shufflers rushed, and the foot came down. Amazingly, this wasn't the mutual destruction of the bunch. Carrie stood, arms and legs outstretched, the stomper's foot struggling to push down the final six feet and crush them. It wasn't super strength that held it in check- the cat was using her own braced skeletal system to prevent their untimely demise. "Nnnngghhhh holy fuck this hurts..."
"Hang in there, Carrie!" Natalie tried her best to fight off the shufflers that had come in not to assault, but to bury them under their hideous weight.
It was at this moment that Erwin noticed that they were not standing on earth. Carrie- whose feet should have sunk into the ground several feet- specifically was standing on a metal plate... and that plate was buckling fast. "Guys! We have to get out-"
There was a thunderous ~KRA-DUNCH~ of something cracking open, and suddenly they were falling through darkness, the light of day falling away from them all too quickly... yet for far, far too long.
