The Burger Dictator was abuzz with activity. Under normal circumstances, this would've been due to a child's birthday party or a two-for-one on Bacon Despot Juniors. As the afternoon fell into evening, however, the denizens of Locksmouth were plotting against the designs of a real, actual dictator- the first they'd come close to having since times long-forgotten.
"... Why didn't you want mention in the group?" Natalie asked of her two newest allies, Coul and Alliston.
The grunge-styled raccoon shrugged, running a hand through his messy, hatless mop of hair. "People probably know our identities, and associate us with not... great things."
"Aye, Cap'n Nat. Bad for you, bad for us," agreed Alliston, attempting to wash a rogue slosh of soft drink from the inside of her boot. "It's what we're deservin' after so much time bullying, methinks."
Max nodded. "Pretty much! Besides, we need somebody to watch over this place and keep our families safe."
"Aye-aye! And you can count on us!" saluted the striped vixen. "G'wan, go build your thingy, we'll keep this ship afloat!" She smiled sadly despite herself. "I just hope Cedgie's okay..."
Carrie rolled her eyes and pat the girl's shoulder reassuringly. "Believe me, if there's one thing I hate about Cedric, it's that he's resourceful." Though her words were harsh, Allie appeared to appreciate the sentiment. "So, copper top, where are we going first?"
Erwin flipped the page in his ArtBook away from a sketch of Kei, sighing softly before getting a grip and pointing to a schematic he'd been drawing. "My invention requires a magnetoscopic variance projector. Without it, ordinary noise will garble the signal necessary to broadcast the override."
"Aren't those in just about everything, though?" Natalie asked. "I remember you helping me study that chapter for Science class. Why not just take it out of a PET or something?"
The ferret smirked, adjusting his glasses. "You really earned that solid B plus! Ordinarily, yes, I'd just get one at Gear Baby's, or raid a toy for it."
"Like my remote control PeTra," Samantha groused, arms folded.
"Aheh... I said I was sorry! We were only ten. I built you another PeTra, didn't I??
"That's short for 'Personal Trans!'" Max stated, looking at nobody in particular. "It's like a car, but it flies."
The group of friends stared in awkward silence. "Max..." Natalie asked, "Who are you talking to?"
"The audience, of course!"
They traded looks of concern and confusion.
The iguana rolled his eyes. "Jacent, duh! He's from the past, he doesn't know what all this crap is!"
"Oh!"
"Haha, of course."
"How rude of me!"
"You are the resident expert on old stuff."
Jace nodded, smiling. "Thank you, Max."
"Anyway!" Erwin laughed. "The reason I can't use just anything is because I need it to be able to service something at least as big as a building. The only thing I know that has one of those is a subway train."
Natalie 'ahh'ed in realization. "So we're going to the local subway again?"
He shook his head. "No chance. There's only two trains to get around town, and if they're not running, it'll take forever to find them; not to mention taking one apart in a tunnel would give me a coronary. No, we'll need to get to the Subtran Station."
"Alright!" Nat confirmed. "We need to stop Osoth from using any of those trains to get out of Locksmouth. And if anyone's in trouble underground, we'll be there! Perfect. There's only one thing left to figure out!"
Sam tilted her head. "What's that, Natalie dear?"
All she offered was a smirk. "Passenger seating."
-
- -
-
The public district of Locksmouth held many things necessary to the running of a civilized society- the police station, emergency response headquarters, government office, to name a few. Near the edge of this, a structure sat simply to call attention to the existence of the Subtran Station, standing just behind its subterranean entryway. The surface access yawned like a stair-toothed maw in the moderate downpour that plinked down onto the street. Unlike the residential and commercial sectors, which teemed with one kind of life or another, not even animals seemed to congregate in this sector. This had an eerie, isolating effect.
The silence gave way to a thrumming that drew ever nearer. Two sets of hovering devices, and the unmistakable sound of cogs on a chain- not to mention the precipitous din of water being pushed aside in v-shaped trails beneath tire and skiff.
"Everyone off! We're here." The hoodie-wearing leader of the group of teenagers turned and slid to a stop, flinging an arc of water out in front of her.
Samantha waited for Natalie to crouch down, then dropped down off of her back. "Nnh! Well that was terrifying." Hand over heart, she took a few calming breaths as the others pulled up behind them.
"Yeah, if by terrifying you mean awesome sauce!" Max leapt off of the stunt pegs of the otherwise flamboyant bicycle Jacent had commandeered, pushing his goggles up. "We gotta do that again, dude!"
Jacent chuckled. "Anytime, my friend. I do wish you would keep your tongue within your mouth, however, instead of letting it flag in the wind; it slapped me several times."
"You're not the only one with a drooling passenger," Carrie groused, mostly for show.
"I wasn't groping!" Erwin defended. "There's not much to hold onto, and at arm's length, your chest was the biggest thing!"
Nat smirked and mussed the ferret's hair. "That's just what a groper would say."
"Sh-Shut up..." He blushed, trying not to laugh.
They joked, but as they neared the entrance to the Subtran Station, it had never looked more foreboding. Lights flickered, debris littered the stairwell, and an aural soup of strange electric thrumming ghoulishly forbade them to enter. They all stared gravely at it.
"We're only gonna get wet waiting out- AAH!" Carrie yelped in surprise as everyone's PET each let out a bark.
"Someone's in trouble!" Natalie immediately answered the transmission which opened an anonymous call with the distress signal's sender. She made certain it was audio-only. "Hello?"
"Hello??" An excited, worried and most pointedly young voice answered. "I-Is this...?"
"Echelon. Who am I talking to?"
"A-... Aren Tenthwood."
"Tenthwood?" The wolf puzzled over this, realization dawning on her slowly. She knew an Aren Tenthwood; he was a young boy who attended some science classes with her due to advanced placement. "...Lil' Tenny??"
The line went silent. "... Nobody calls me that except-"
"Ahaha what's your location??" Natalie quickly interrupted him, laughing nervously as Carrie face-palmed.
"Oh, um. I'm in a train, except I can't see where the train is; it's stopped, though."
"That means he's definitely in the SubTran Station," Erwin confirmed.
"Alright, wait right there, Aren!" Carrie assured him, "We're coming for you."
"O-... Okay..."
Natalie sensed the unease in his voice. "Hey. We'll bark at you in ten minutes, okay? If we don't, send us another one."
"R-Right," he confirmed, still nervous, but less so. "But, hurry, okay?"
The call ended, and Natalie pocketed her PET like a gunslinger. "Are we ready to go?"
"Wait, Natalie dear!" Her batty compatriot protested. "How will we hide our identities while rescuing this boy?"
She cocked a brow. "Can't you guys just... ink up?"
"Not like you can," Cat responded. "I don't think they've had enough time to trust their inklings the way you do Echelon."
"Besides," Max added, "If we wear 'em as disguises, we'll use up all their power and not have any for super awesome battle fighting action!"
"Hm. Good point." The wolf girl scratched her head.
"Not to worry!" The ferret pulled out his PET and detached a small square-shaped piece of it. "We'll just play the disguise game." He pressed the square to his temple, an earth toned beam-visor projecting in front of his eyes and, most importantly, obscuring a large portion of his face.
"Ah!" Sam smiled. "A brilliant idea! Jacent, dear, do you need help with yours?" she asked, fiddling with her own.
He smiled and silently shook his head.
"Oh, uh. He doesn't do the whole 'secret identity' thing," Nat explained. "To be honest, I don't think we could hide it anyway- not without a full body suit or something. He is the only pre-splice human left."
"Indeed," Jacent agreed, chuckling. "And I have to deal with enough misplaced ideas about my heritage without looking like a ninja. Now let's go- a scared little boy needs us!"
-
- -
-
The station was a worse mess inside than outside. The wall-mounted environmental lighting fought an endless battle to stay on, fading in and out, spending several seconds flickering in alternation with the blue-tinted emergency lights. Luggage, overcoats, PETs and other miscellaneous items lie on the ground, though it was no longer a mystery why- they were no doubt discarded by panicked passengers just trying to avoid being overtaken by monsters who wanted to unload excess inklings onto them. As a result of this, complete silence filled the entire place, aside from the distant sound of rain and occasional thunderbolt outside. The part that they didn't recognize was the occasional hole in the wall- eight feet in diameter at minimum, appearing on walls, ceilings and occasionally creating a pitfall in the floor. They seemed not unlike tunnels, but what exactly created them was anybody's guess.
Jacent was quick to note that the Subtran Station greatly resembled airports of his time- a central hub opening into multiple gates to board various subway trains. With a little probing, he grew to understand that post-splice humanity, with the help of settlements in the oceans, had placed their world-traveling dreams in the earth rather than the sky. Tunnels existed not just from city to city, but reached from one continent to the next. He idly wondered how this kind of labor could have been accomplished by a people in he midst of an underpopulation crisis, but before he could inquire, a riotous barking interrupted them.
Natalie, quickest on the draw, withdrew her PET and examined it. "Wow, ten minutes on the dot. Somebody's anxious." She answered the call, this time offering a visual, considering their collective visor-eyed disguise. "Echelon speaking." Her words echoed through the empty space with a sense of desolation.
The holographic representation of a young tiger boy, somewhere around ten years old, stood unsurely. His vibrant cargo shorts held a number of patches and a keychain or two of cartoon characters he was probably fond of, while his shirt featured a holographic spinning image of Saturn over his small chest. He was the very picture of an excitable, studious child, fiddling with his PET. "Oh! Um, hi. Y-You said to bark if it took you longer than ten minutes, and it's ten minutes... um..."
"Point taken," Nat replied amicably. "We're in the station, Aren. Do you know what train you're on?" The numerous gates stretched before them to the left and right. "And is there anyone else on it with you?"
"Um, the sign says it's train number thirteen." He fidgeted with something for a moment. "There was someone else on the train. He helped me hide when... when the monsters came."
The group nodded, confirming their suspicions. "Just one? Where is he now?" Carrie probed.
"I dunno," he confessed. "I can't find him in this car, and... I-I'm scared to look in the others."
Samantha tsked from behind her pink visor. "Oh, that's quite alright, little one- you were right to wait for help. We're going to come get you, alright?"
"Alright. Hurry, okay?? Please, it's really creepy in here." The call ended once more.
Trekking over to gate 13, two things became apparent. One, there had been an intense struggle coming out of it- a number of injured, unconscious shufflers littered the ground around the gate exit. Two, the train wasn't at said gate.
"Well, that's strange..." Natalie puzzled. "Where's the train, if it's not here?"
Erwin tilted his head. "The gate says that it's still due for arrival. It must never have made it."
Putting on a disturbed visage- moreso than usual- Max menaced their short bat friend. "The train isn't here, though we just spoke to the little boy! It never made it baaack~!"
Sam winced. "Max, stop that! It's eerie enough in here!"
He didn't relent, making terribly grotesque faces, his tongue lolling out as he provoked worse and worse reactions from Samantha. "It's a ghastly ghooost traaain~! It's hauling the dead to their final place of resting, WAHAHAHA-HGK!"
Carrie held his tongue in her clenched fist, unamused. "Cool it, glue drooler. If there are more monsters here, we don't need you calling them to us."
"Well, looks like we don't have any choice, guys," Natalie concluded, staring down the tunnel. "We're going in."
"D-... Down there??" The fidgeting ferret did not like the idea.
A violent tremor shook the entire station. A thunderous din deafened them and threatened their footing, but before they could so much as ask what was going on, it faded to complete silence.
"... We weren't supposed to have an earthquake," Samantha meekly noted, confused and a little frightened.
Jacent shook his head. "That was no quake. The boy is in serious danger if he's trapped in that tunnel."
"That just means we have to get there quick!" Nat took off down the tunnel, Cat in tow. Max ran after them, and Jacent took Sam with him.
"Wait!" Erwin called out in vain. The dark tunnel stretched before him with terrible foreboding... but the rest of the station was an empty husk. "Nngh... wait for me!"
-
- -
-
Every step echoed incessantly. A cold wind blew through the tunnel, chilling the kids' rain-soaked clothes before they adjusted them to be warmer- even Jacent, who wore Carrie's ill-fitting tank top under his tattered costume.
Well, he tried, anyway. "Ugh, this device is a maze-like nightmare! All I want to do is stop shivering. I wish I'd asked for something to warm my lower body as well..."
"You can borrow my panties, too, if you want." Carrie offered with her usual stoicism, mixed with just a bit of amusement.
"Urk! Ah, th-that's okay, I'll pass..."
"Just voice-command it, Jacent," Erwin explained with a long-suffering sigh. As the book-smart one of the group, he could already tell the task of enlightening Jacent to this century's technology was going to fall to him. He was just glad that the poor lighting and rough terrain of the torn-up tunnel had made the group slow down to a stroll. His thoughts were interrupted by a flashing indicator in the corner of his visor HUD. "... Answer." The device showed the translucent image of two female ferrets- one tall and muscular, the other slight, almost wispy in appearance. "Oh, hey Mom, Dad."
"Hey, kiddo," the taller one, Terra, answered. "You holdin' up alright? Been a while since you messaged us." The smaller one, Penelope, nodded silently with concern.
"Oh. Yeah, sorry, things got... well. Mm."
"Somethin' wrong, buddy?" Terra noted with concern.
"... Well. Yeah, actually," he admitted. "Somebody turned out to be inked and was forced to attack us. It was... Kei. The, uh... the fox boy."
"The cute one you like??" Penelope fretted. "Ohhh, sweetie, we're so sorry."
"It's okay!" Erwin swallowed the lump in his throat. "Because I'm gonna build something that'll... it'll fix everything," he asserted with uncharacteristic determination. "And nothing's gonna stop me, because my friends are helping."
"That's the spirit," Terra clenched a fist in front of herself proudly. "That's my boy! I knew you'd figure out a plan. You do it, son. You build that thing and help everyone, you use that brain of yours to come out on top!"
"Just... b-be careful, okay honey?" implored Penelope.
The ferret boy wiped a tear away, his hand phasing through the visor. "You bet, Mom. Thanks, Dad. I have to go, okay?" They nodded silently, and he ended the call.
"... Your parents really love you, don't they?" Jacent asked amid the pregnant silence. He'd only heard Erwin's side of the conversation, but that alone spoke volumes.
Unfortunately, the ferret didn't get a chance to respond- tremors shook the tunnel with malicious intent, this time building to a raucous crescendo. Erwin spotted it first- a viscous green mass appearing from a huge hole in the ceiling. The thing resembled a massive snot drip, threatening to drop at any moment as the trembling died down. Jacent hurriedly flung himself forward, somersaulting to land just behind the entity as it hit the floor with the kind of ~SPLAT~ one would expect from a half-ton of jello. Inside of its gooey translucent carapace bounced a huge, singular cat-like yellow eye, which it trained on the group of teenagers as it towered above them.
Carrie half-winced, half-sneered in disgust and recognition. "It's a grabber!" Seeing the confused look on her comrades' faces, she clarified. "The thing that slimed me in the air duct of the school! But... it wasn't anywhere near this big. Crap, and me in my school getup again!"
Noting the tendrils extending from the grabber's gelatinous body as if eyes from a snail, Natalie cautioned, "Everyone, back away!"
"Agh! It got me!" cried Max, plucked from his perch on the ceiling to be wrapped in, somewhat ironically, viscous green gunk. "Nyeaaaaahhh!!" he wailed, being shaken side to side as it drew tighter around him.
"Nat, gimme a boost!" Carrie implored. With a nod and a drop to one knee, the wolf girl held her hands open just in time to have Cat step into them, launching her upward in this well-practiced maneuver of theirs. The snow colored cat grabbed onto the tree trunk-like appendage that held their iguana friend in check, her arms locking in a death grip that cinched tighter and tighter around the translucent tube. Whatever modes were used by the monster to grip- be they muscles, circulation or otherwise- lost their potency higher up the limb and tremblingly dropped the reptile.
"Oofh! Thanks for the assist, cake tank! I had him on the ropes, though!" Max scrambled back up the wall, ducking a little better this time.
"Thank me later! HNGH!" She grunted, laughing as she did when the tendril immediately took to wrapping around her torso. "Gimme some grip tape!" He obliged, spewing his yellow glue in a straight line away from Carrie, then pooled some at the base of the giant jello mold. "Ah-hah!" She got a grip on the thick tentacle around her, lifted herself and dropped, thinking heavy thoughts. It didn't wrench control from the staring beast, but it did falter in its rigidity enough that her shoes touched the awful gunk that had come out of her friend's face. "Oh you're SCREWED now!" she cackled.
"Yeah! Good plan!" Erwin enthused from the sideline. "Pull it apart!"
"All over it, nerd boy!" Arms gripped around its own coiled hold on her, Carrie pulled. The gelatinous monstrosity pulled back, but true to her intuition, the cat held fast. With the same strength that held the massive limb taut between them, Cat pulled a foot free of the slime and took a short, staccato step forward. The creature protested, but her might proved stronger, her grip truer. Step by step she tested its will, stretching the arm further away from its owner, and in a panic, it sent a second tendril to slap at and apprehend her. She stopped only for a moment to grab at it herself, shouldering this second burden as well and marching more slowly... but with iron determination.
Its third tendril tried to whip at her, but Natalie was quick and latched onto it herself, one arm clinging to the big gooey limb, the other hand deep in her pocket. "I hope this works!" Asserting her will throughout her body, Natalie stretched like a spaghetti noodle. She'd wanted to focus her movement, but unfortunately she fell as limp as a noodle as well, looking up at the disapproving stare of the oversized grabber as it tried to shake her off. Its motions served her cause, whipping her around in a circular motion that began wrapping her up like a coil around its long, gooey tendril. When she ran out of 'line,' her face met its flesh mouth-open, clamping down on its thick green slime. "Nom!" With a sure grip in her jaw and her heel lock with herself, Nat focused on retracting like a rubber band. The effect was immediate and obvious- the grabber's third tendril flailed uselessly in circles as she restricted its range of motion.
The distraction proved vital. With continuous effort, Carrie's pulling finally won out amidst high-pitched screeching that escaped its flesh through bubbles emitted from its single central eye, giving it an almost drowning quality. The monster's two massive tendrils ripped from its body, bursting with viscous green liquid that splattered everywhere. Carrie roared in triumph, Sam shrieked in disgust, and the oversized slime pile screeched louder than ever.
Natalie's borrowed powers of elasticity ran out, but instead of being stuck as a horrifying noodle girl, her body snapped back, unraveling rapidly until she met in the middle and fell off the one remaining tendril. "Oof! Ow... I think I kicked myself in the face somehow..."
Covered in absolutely more slime than she ever wanted to touch her, Sam wildly stomped one of the fallen arms with her prosthetic leg. "Creepy slimy wet disgusting foul rubbery auuughuahaha it's horrible!"
"... Guys?" Erwin cast a worried look at the wounded grabber. "I think we're in trouble." Sure enough, with a shaking effort that dilated its slit pupil, the lime-colored terror simply grew two new limbs where the others had been torn asunder, jiggling into place while the rest of the creature's mass shrank to make up for the replacements. "... It just uses the pseudopod for whatever it needs... the eye! That's got to be the weak point!"
"Natalie!" called Jacent from the other side of the creature. "Let's do a double Comet Crash and meet in the middle! We may be able to incapacitate it!"
"Right!" Nat nodded, looking at the gloves on her hands and concentrating. She waited for the 'click' in her head that let her know she'd switched powersets. It took longer than usual, but when it did finally click into place... she imagined herself using those powers. Running, boosting, slamming into the creature's flesh... and plowing through it completely, exiting its giant eye like a bullet, killing it instantly. Her hands shook, sweat rolling down her forehead. She swallowed with great effort, filled with dread.
"Natalie!" Jacent implored, trying to snap her out of it. "What's wrong?! There's no time-" He himself was interrupted by rumbling- the same rumbling as before, in fact, but much louder... much closer.
"What?! You mean this isn't what was causing the tremors??" Samantha disbelieved.
"Hurry, Natalie!" Jace urged her. "Attack, before-" A deafening rumble drowned him out, the ground beneath him buckling. Before they could react, a massive serpentine thing of some sort launched itself upward and into the tunnel the grabber had descended from. In seconds, it was gone... and so was Jacent.
"No!" Nat shook out of her trance. "Whoa, crap!" She barely had enough time to roll out of the way of a tree-sized tentacle as it tried to overhand smash her.
"More glue!" Cat requested, running up to the limb. Max obliged her, and she jumped into a big opaque yellow puddle before grabbing the grabber.
Natalie mentally cycled through her known assets. In a moment of clarity, she plunged her hand into her hoodie pocket and pulled out a pirate bandanna, putting it on with all the seriousness the hopeless headwear didn't deserve. "It's go time! Let's see, ice sword? Ice club?? Ice meat cleaver! Yeah!" Gesturing in front of her, she materialized all of an oversized handle before it puttered out. "... What?? Crap!" Alliston's powers were still very much hers at the moment, but her lucidity toward them made the issue clear- there wasn't enough moisture in the air around her. Her version of them couldn't manage their original counterpart's efficiency, so without all the snow around, she was left decidedly uncool.
"Hngh... could really use some help here, Sugarbutt!" Carrie reminded her, struggling to hold two of the giant monster's tentacles in check.
"Just a sec!" Her head scrambled for options. If only she had some liquid! "... Ahhh hahaha!" A maniacal grin of genius overcame her.
"Natalie!" Sam called out, horrified, as she watched her friend casually march toward the body of he beast. "What on Earth are you doing?!"
"Kicking ass!" Natalie strode up and plunged her open palms into the gelatinous mass of the grabber's body, bubbling fatly between her spread fingers as if, she noted amusingly, she were groping Carrie's chest. When she focused Alliston's powers into her digits, that was when the magic happened- frost crawled up its body, rapidly solidifying its carapace. The cold traveled quickly, creeping to its limbs, which cracked under their own weight and shattered to the floor like pieces of hard candy. The eye, which seemed far more concerned than it was previously, scrambled to the top of its mass, trying desperately to stay away from the frost line. All that remained was a comparatively tiny bit of unfrozen slime when Nat stopped.
The eye oozed itself out of the frozen mountain of mass, rolling down its former body in an embarrassed series of wet, pitiful squeaks. It finally landed on the ground next to Natalie, staring up at her.
"Boo!"
The eye dilated in sheer terror, rolling away on its remaining body mass, rolling itself down the first hole it could find.
"Don't mess." Spinning the bandanna on one finger, she casually deposited it into her hoodie once more. "... Max, what are you doing??"
Their iguana friend appeared to be hugging a grabber the size of a house cat, grinning ear to ear. "Isn't he cute?? Oh man, he's so tiny, he must be a baby whatever-that-was!"
"Max, put that down!" Natalie warned him. "It's a monster, and it could have an inkling in it!" She reflexively pulled out her PET.
Echelon's familiar voice clarified. "Actually, that species is harmless without inklings; they're herbivores. And we don't inhabit anything while it's still an infant- it can't survive supporting itself and us both. It must've just been formed from that one we saw."
"See, Natalie??" Max all but tittered like a small child. "He's no trouble! Can I keep him??" He thrust out the little slimeball at her.
It climbed up her arm and rested on her shoulder, staring with an unblinking, child-like curiosity. She couldn't help but giggle a bit. "He is kind of cute."
"Oh, Natalie, please don't let him keep that," Sam pleaded. "But more importantly, what happened to Jacent??"
"Tall, pale and fistsome will be fine, Sam," Carrie replied casually, returning the slime to Max.
Erwin nodded. "I kinda get the feeling you're right, but... how can you be so sure?"
She looked to Nat, who smirked. "I just trust him. ... Plus, I read Cap'n Comet versus Tunnel Vision: Attack of the Earth Wyrm."
-
- -
-
Aren "Lil Tenny" Tenthwood was getting a little antsy, in the same way that uranium was a 'little' heavy. Remembering scientific facts always calmed him down. Science was firm, well-grounded- a sure thing. When nothing else made sense, you could always look to Science to be the one thing you could count on.
When his parents decided moving to the neighboring city of Harbington was fit for the family, they'd worried that he might have a hard time adjusting to being away from the friends he'd made, especially when he'd done so well academically as to place in high school Science classes. He'd made the case that he should stay with a friend's family in Locksmouth, and when he felt secure in his studies, he'd move back with them. He'd stated his case carefully and logically, and though they missed him, they'd agreed. Science won the day again.
He was having a hard time applying science to what was happening now. The lonely train ride back from visiting his family in Harbington, save for an odd stranger he'd chatted with, had turned into a total catastrophe beyond his understanding. The train had stopped when it detected organisms on the track, and what happened next was like something out of a zombie movie. Monsters- he couldn't describe them any other way- burst in the doors and began tearing the place apart in search of passengers, though for what purpose he could only hazard a terrified guess.
He'd frozen, nothing like the way he'd many times imagined he would act in such a situation. The man he'd met on the train ride was calm and collected, however, drawing something from his luggage and telling him to hide. It seemed like a really dumb plan, but Tenny was too afraid to do anything but run into the car behind them and hide in the storage compartment of a bench seat. So hide he did, inside an empty luggage bin, barely daring to breathe until the sounds of those wretched things had stopped completely. It was the worst, most terrifying wait of his life. And then he'd listened to the broadcast on his earphones, which gave him what he needed to feel better: facts. Sweet, wonderful facts, which he could put his mind to work on analyzing instead of blindly imagining more and more terrible outcomes for himself.
And then the back door thumped ominously, with a familiar slow, heavy rhythm. "... Echelon??" He called as his fingers flew over his PET. "Echelon!"
-
- -
-
Jacent sat in the mouth of a monstrous subterranean worm, hanging on for dear life, while simultaneously reevaluating said existence. Landscapes changed so fast it was as if he were on a rancid-smelling roller-coaster from Hell, rotating layers of teeth rapidly cutting through rocks which threatened to pelt him viciously if not for his force shield- which he could summon thanks to the break-neck speed the thing was traveling at.
He grabbed handfuls of saliva-drenched flesh, making his way closer to the mouth of the beast. The constant bucking and turning and plowing through solid rock made it a horrible undertaking, but he finally reached just short of the rotating tooth columns, grabbed a strange epiglottis-like organ in each hand... and took a chance.
He jerked the worm this way and that, asserting his considerable leverage over momentum to knock it off-rhythm. Then again. And again! It stopped, as if very angry and confused, and suddenly bolted off in a direction it seemed quite sure of at treacherous speed. Up and down and all around they went through its network of tunnels, deep into a large area. But as it headed for a thick concrete wall, ready to bore through it as well, Jacent jerked them hard-right, giving no time to stop their momentum... and crashed the immense rock-eater into the unforgiving granite. He knocked around inside the monster, but his air cushion proved sufficient safety.
He stepped out of the maw of the unconscious beast and into an unfamiliar part of the subtran station, wiping off dust and mucus with disgust. "I preferred the Earth Wyrm. Far less gross, even with a fat, sweaty guy in it." His eyes widened when it stirred and groaned. "Ah! No!" A swift boost-kick sent it back into dream land.
A strange figure observed Jacent from around the corner. "Easy on the rank and file, killer," he whispered. Looking about the age of a high school junior, a lean, toned husky with hair that rivaled Jacent's in length leaned from behind a corner, dressed in jeans and a jacket left open, revealing his chest and torso musculature. He wore an easy smile and held a vintage-looking cane by his side.
Jacent shrugged off the sensation that he was being watched. "Where in the world did you bring me?" He blinked when his PET barked at him. He fumbled with the device before finally answering. "Hello?"
Natalie appeared as a hologram, fully inked. "Cap?" You're okay!"
"Yes, I'm fine. Have you found Little Tenny yet?"
The husky frowned, and thumbed his own PET momentarily.
"We've found the train he's on, but somebody engaged the auto-lock. We're trying to break in."
Jacent nodded. "The sooner, the better. Then we can disable the rest of the trains and get out of here."
"No problem! Just stay safe, and get back to us-" The message cut off as the device suddenly shut down, as if from interference. Jace felt a frustrated sigh on his lips, but he held it in favor of what the relative silence offered to his ears: footsteps. Quick ones.
-
- -
-
The heavy metal door thumped harder and harder. Every clock-like strike against it became louder, more thunderous. "Echelon!!" Aren screamed, backed up against the seat. "Echelon, help!! Echelo-"
"What??" The girl appeared in holographic form. "What's wrong?!" The thunderous boom occurred again.
"Something's trying to get in!" he cried.
"What? Into the-" Boom! "... Arus, stop for a second." The banging stopped. "Now, who's trying to get in??"
Aren blinked. He looked at the quiet door... then to Echelon. "Um. Just a second." The tiger boy walked up to the door, tentatively reached for the window control, and pressed it.
The windows went transparent, and five teenagers looked at him, Arus shaking her hand with a whispered 'ow.'
He blushed. "Um. Nevermind."
They all shared a laugh, as heard through their PETs. "Go ahead and unlock the door, Aren!" Echelon encouraged.
"Mmh... I can't. The lockout's been set. I'd need an administrator key," the tiger boy concluded after fiddling with the door controls for a moment.
Echelon's face- the real Echelon- appeared in the outside window. "Natalie, it's time to use Mirror Slide."
"Mirror Slide?" Carrie asked.
"But... I thought you could only use that in dreams," Natalie marveled.
The liquid wolf smiled pinkly. "Your bond with me has unlocked things I never thought possible. It'll use a lot of power, but thanks to our bond, I should recover it shortly."
"Wow." Nat grinned. "Okay, what do we do?"
"Tell the boy to find a mirror, if possible."
"Aren!" Natalie called him. "Are there any mirrors on the train?"
He thought about it. "... Yeah, there's one in the bathroom, why?"
Echelon interrupted, "Tell him to write something on it."
Nat nodded. "Do you have anything you could write on the mirror with?"
"Um, I have some markers in my backpack. I don't see where you're going with this..."
"Listen carefully. I want you to write the word 'Train' on the bathroom mirror, alright?"
"... Sure, okay," he responded, his cooperation laced with confusion.
"Now, you need a mirror as well," Echelon instructed.
Samantha blinked and squeaked helpfully. "Oh! I have you covered!" She dug a compact out of her pocket. "Will this do?"
"Perfect!" Natalie confirmed, intuiting what came next. "Now everybody join hands!"
Lil' Tenny came back on the line. "Okay, all done!"
The wolf girl took the compact from her bat buddy. "Great! Here... we... go!"
Each of the five friends felt themselves drawn into the mirror. What they saw when they emerged was unlike anything they'd ever experienced. Where three dimensions had been, now there were but two, against which they were blotted. Sharp, smooth shapes made up the topography, bold but depth-less. A deep green sky twinkled with endless stars, scrolling until one remembered to focus back on the ground. Far from dead, the landscape itself teemed with life... though it was impossible to distinguish from said landscape until it hazarded to move, crawl, leap where it intended.
The very next thing Natalie noticed, however, was severe discomfort. "Hnngh!" she grunted, crouching; everything seemed so much heavier. Her gaze fell to her compatriots, whose flesh was inked over the moment they passed through the boundary- notable, as they didn't seem to be feeling particularly crushed. She tried to stand, even her hair pulling straight down.
Carrie blinked. "Natalie?!"
"It's like gravity's... a hundred times stronger or something..." She struggled to lift a hand outward. "E-Echelon!" The black fluid covered her quickly, and she popped into this new existence, no longer seeing out of her eyes but somehow observing herself as if in a dream. The wolf shook, taking in her surroundings- they looked flat, like her. The effect wasn't unlike looking at a story book, but somehow infinitely larger in scale.
Carrie and her friends rushed to her side. "Are you okay??"
She rose slowly, noticing they were in something like a run-down castle full of mirrors. "Yeah... fine, now. What the hell was that, Echelon?? Is this... where you're from?"
Echelon appeared as the reflection in a circular mirror on the wall. "Yes. Welcome to my world. Welcome, to Canvas..." she greeted them with an appropriately wolfish smile. "It's different from yours on a very fundamental level, which is why we require hosts to live in it. Your world has more space, and that tears away at us. Whereas if you try to exist here... it's quite crushing. Other amorphous creatures have an easier time, but you're far too rigid to last very long."
Cat sneered. "So why'd you put Natalie in danger like that??"
She frowned as Natalie and her friends climbed the steps of the throne room. "I tried to warn you, but you went on ahead before I could. I was going to cover you, Natalie, but you told me never to take over your body. I'm sorry, but I take my promises seriously."
"Oh, yeah." Nat hit her forehead in a 'duh' gesture. "Well, no harm, no foul. But for future reference, if I'm in danger due to stuff that I don't know about, feel free to wrap me up at the very least, all right?" She took Echelon's nod and smiled.
"Man, this place is crazy!" Max exclaimed, the small grabber latched onto his head looking around curiously. "Gropey and I wanna check it out!"
"... You named it Gropey?" Carrie sighed, weary but unsurprised. "Sorry, sticky pants, we're on a tight schedule," she noted, prompting a shoulder-slumping 'aww' from the liquid lizard. "Echelon, how do we get outta here and into the train?"
"This castle is deceptively large. Past that large door to the right is a hall of mirrors that I've long used as a window to other places in your world. It goes on nigh-infinitely, but I've worked on it over time to be able to bring certain ones to the fore, so long as they have a distinguishing feature."
"Like the marker!" Natalie intuited.
"Precisely! Now go, friends, hurry to the train! Erwin must build this machine soon, or Earth will be just another world under Osoth's thumb."
Natalie opened the door, and began briskly running down the hall with her friends in tow. Dozens of mirrors passed by, various symbols and objects on their surface. It didn't take a minute to find the one clearly labeled 'TRAIN.' Natalie put her hands on its surface and felt herself being pulled in. Carrie grabbed her tail as the wolf was sucked through, Max grabbing hers, Erwin grabbing his, and Sam taking up the rear as they all passed back into the real world. Their feet hit solid floor in three-dimensional space again, and their ink pulled back to reveal flesh once more.
Aren Tenthwood turned around and stared in awe. "Where the heck did you guys come from??"
'Phactys' shook his head and chuckled. "... We're still not sure."
"Well, thank goodness you're safe, by any measure," Mhend nodded. "You're not hurt, are you?"
Aren winced, looking down at a knee he'd scraped while running away. "Um. It doesn't hurt, though."
Echelon shook her head, smiling. "Well, a wounded refugee won't do." She ran a hand down Sam's cheek, then crouched down to eye level with him. "Relax, this'll only take a second." She gently took his boyish cheeks in her hands and gave him a quick kiss.
This stunned Lil' Tenny, whose face flushed. "Wh-..." She gestured down to his knee, now good as new. He ran a hand over it in wonder. "Whoa... that's so cool. Thanks, Natalie!" he blurted out without thinking. All present stared very awkwardly. "Um! I mean, Echelon."
Natalie chuckled and shook her head. "Yeah, I blundered that earlier, didn't I. But hey. You'll keep our secret safe, right?"
The tiger boy nodded eagerly. "N-No problem! I swear I won't tell anybody."
She smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, switching off her visor for a moment. "Thanks. I knew I could count on you." With a wink, the pink beam reappeared across her face. "Now why don't you tell us what happened, while Erwin gets to work on the parts he needs?"
And tell them he did- all about the visit, the train ride, the monsters, the stranger and his hiding place.
"Wow, that guy really did you a solid," Max commented.
"Yeah... that reminds me!" Aren remembered. "Did anybody see Kelvalde??"
"Who?" Carrie questioned.
"Kelvalde," he repeated. "The guy who let me escape! I hope he's okay. What if Osoth's bad inklings got him??"
"Maybe Jacent's seen him?" Sam suggested.
"I dunno," Natalie admitted. "I'd ask him, but I haven't been able to call his PET since he cut off suddenly back there. I wonder what happened?"
Carrie rolled her eyes. "Big oaf probably dropped it."
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"Stop!" Jacent yelled at the top of his lungs- which were fairly booming, given his years of practice shouting at ne'er-do-wells. His quarry, however, was either unimpressed or unconcerned, running at top speed and upending objects to slow down the costumed crusader.
They didn't, naturally, as forcing things out of his way was his speciality; thus, the first opportunity the stranger got to make a sharp turn down a separate access tunnel, he took. "I don't think so!"
Jacent hounded him, following him around turn after tight, winding turn. Finally a long straightaway presented itself, and the red-maned crime fighter closed the distance with a leaping tackle! "Gotcha!"
"Ungh!" This boy was no ordinary sneak- he took the fall and managed to tumble with it, wresting himself from Jacent in the same movement. It was then that he bounced to his feet, quicker than quick, and slashed at Cap'n Comet in rapid succession. Jacent managed to feint away, but he was dumbstruck by just how masterfully his opponent had rolled with his proverbial punches. Not only that, but for someone who had been fleeing urgently a moment ago, he was all smiles now, beaming with confidence. After getting a chance to look at it, his weapon was intriguing, as well- a fencing blade cleverly hidden in a decorative cane. "Stay right there, or I'll have to mess up a pretty face today."
Jacent stood his ground. "Why were you spying on me? And why did you run??"
"I'm afraid you and your friends have plans for the boy on that train, and wouldn't you know it, I just don't approve of them," he replied so jokingly as to almost be casual.
"Your arrogance will be your downfall," Jace promised. "I've already de-inked two like you!" He flourished a very threatening and well-practiced kata, taking some satisfaction at seeing the husky wince in surprise ever so slightly. He dodged a sudden attack from his opponent. The battle had begun, but he wasn't about to go on the offensive.
"Don't drop your guard for a second!" warned the very handsome canine, wielding his epee with a degree of finesse that eluded sporting fencers both casual and elite. "This weapon punishes mistakes like the audience at a Neo-Victorian opera house."
"Is that what the kids are listening to now?" For his part, Jacent deflected the blade away from him with his bare hands. Well, not his hands per se- that would've been phenomenally stupid- but his hands and arms as assisted by force shielded blows, and a tight but fluid discipline that focused on defending a small circle in front of yourself- which just so happened to be everywhere his opponent's blade wanted to land.
The husky faked for a slice, then thrust. He nicked the other boy, licking a bit of blood from his arm- but it was superficial, and earned him a slap to the crossguard so forceful it nearly disarmed him. Nevertheless, he was quicker to recover than he had any logical right to be- his form was perfect, and then some. "Oh, how can you be so casual? Do you have any idea how few people know how to fence?" He chuckled, spiraling in defense, then went for another short thrust that missed completely. "And then you blow my mind with a style made for boxing against fencers!"
"I never thought I'd use it against anyone after the Grueling Duelist," Cap responded with guarded amusement. "My friend could tell you the exact issue." He went for a crouching leg sweep, but the spry dog hopped over him. He was waiting for him, however, and upon landing, served him with a kick to the shin.
"Rgh! Nice move. However, I know something that you don't; I am not left-handed!" The husky switched footing, tossing his sword into the other hand. "I won't let you do it, you know. Get away with the child, that is."
"Then we have that in common!" Jacent matched his smile, but paused for a moment. "Wait... did you just reference The Princess Bride?"
The canine's brows raised appreciatively. "An old favorite! Part of my collect-... wait. How could you know that film?"
"Me??" Cap asked with no small amount of incredulity. "How could you know it? Nobody in this future gets any of my references! In my own time I was funny! But ever since I was unfrozen, I get nothing but awkward stares," he groused.
"Unfrozen?" The husky peered at him curiously. "So that isn't a trick... you're really a pre-splice human? Alive, and in this time??" His face was guardedly intrigued. "You don't seem like the type to be mixed up with interplanetary thugs."
"Osoth?" he intuited. "Of course not, Echelon and I are out to defy her. Didn't you see the broadcast?"
The mysterious boy blinked. "Oh. Ohhhh. So that was the message I shelved."
The costumed vigilante let his guard down for a moment. "Jacent Danger. Also known to the good people of Earth as Cap'n Comet."
He chuckled and slowly sheathed his blade. "Your real name sounds like an alias I'd come up with. Interesting." He extended a hand. "Kelvalde."
Jacent paused before shaking hands with him, green eyes piercing. "And what's your inkling's name?"
"Oh ho!" Kelvalde laughed, brushing a bit of hair out of his face. "Very interesting, indeed..."
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